Metals &Mining Alert:Daily prices and news,Brazil hikes royalties to hasten economic recovery
Industrials (/lb): aluminum $0.88 (+0.9%), copper $2.82 (+3.3%), lead $1.05(+2.6%), molybdenum $7.14 (+0.0%); nickel $4.54 (+2.3%); zinc $1.29 (+1.7%);Precious (/oz): gold $1,250 (-0.4%), silver $16.49 (0.0%); Steel (/mt): China HRC$558 (+0.4%), SHFE Rebar $524 (+0.9%), MB Scrap Index $296 (+0.0%); Bulks:iron ore (/dmt) $70 (+3.3%), coking coal (/mt) $180 (+1.4%), freight (BCI) 1,221(+4.3%); Energy: Brent (/bbl) $50.20 (+3.3%), WTI (/bbl) $47.89 (+3.3%), naturalgas (/mmBtu) $2.94 (+1.6%), thermal coal (/t) $87 (+0.5%).
Brazilian government reveals plans to hike mining royalties for iron ore to 4%(previously 2%) in order to reduce budget deficit and accelerate economicrecovery. Gold royalties increased to 2% (1%) and diamond to 3% (2%). Newrule, which will go into effect in November, post Congress approval, willinclude the creation of a National Mining Agency to oversee the miningindustry. Additionally, there is a plan to shorten wait times for mining licensesand increase penalties for environmental damage. (Mining Weekly)South Africa’s Chamber of Mines, represented by companies like Anglo-American and Glencore, submit an urgent court application to stall MiningMinster’s latest rules which suspends issuance of new mining and prospectingrights. Left with no option, companies had to turn to court action. Hearing totake place on 8/4. (Reuters)Russia and Kazakhstan raise gold holdings in June to 1,716t (+9t MoM) and279t (+4t MoM), respectively. Turkey added 15t in June, taking total holdingsto 456t. (Reuters)US steel import permits for July through 7/25 total 2.8m st. If adjusted to a fullmonth, permits would be 3.4m st (+6% YoY), vs. June permits of 3.9m st andMay imports of 3.5m st. Semis (-370kt, -42%) appear to decrease the mostMoM, followed by rebars (-232kt, -78%) and plate-in-coils (-43kt, -27%),whereas, oil country tubular goods (+90kt, +29%), standard pipe (+53kt,+54%) and line pipe (+39kt, +21%) permits rose. (US Import Administration)Japan Iron & Steel Federation Chairman, Kosei Shindo has warned ofincreased protectionism worldwide, should US impose trade restrictions underSection 232. Also the President of Japan’s largest integrated mill, Nippon Steel& Sumitomo Metal Corp, noted the most impacted will be the users in US.
Japanese exports to US are relatively small totaling 2mt/pa, and includesmostly specialized products. (SBB)Nucor temporarily halts production at Louisiana DRI facility (capacity:2.5mt/pa) to carry out necessary repairs to material-handling system.
Maintenance stop, which was scheduled for later this week is now expected tooccur in conjunction with the repairs. This is the third outage at the facility thisyear. Despite no impact to production, timing of the outage is not ideal asprime scrap prices and pig iron prices are maintaining historically highpremiums over obsolete grades of scrap. (SBB)
