It should come as no surprise that the strength in iron ore prices due to China’s voracious appetite on the spot market this year is reflected in an equally strong coking coal market. Where thermal coal (used for power generation and heating) has risen just 25% from a March low of $60 per metric ton [...]
Just when prices and demand are looking up for palladium, analysts start talking about selling the metal. But then that’s the job of market researchers, to be looking down the road rather than out the side windows. The motoring metaphor is apt in this case; over 65% of palladium is used in the automotive industry [...]
With a new presidential administration and a flurry of legislative activity this spring, several major pieces of legislation will have profound impacts on both metals producers and metals buyers. We have covered many (though not all) of these issues. Several more pieces of legislation will undoubtedly have enormous impacts including health care reform, card check [...]
The drop in aerospace build schedules and delay of major programs such as the 787 are having a profound impact on the aerospace supply chain. Russia’s VSMPO-Avisma, the world’s largest titanium producer, is reported in Reuters to be postponing a major increase in production until 2014, two years later than planned. VSMPO-Avisma, controlled by state [...]
Because of our backgrounds in global trade, Stuart and I often can’t help but to write about global trade developments as they relate to the metals industries. Sometimes, we feel as though the only thing we do is write about international trade so we’ve consciously limited our writing on specific trade issues to no more [...]
The cost of economic development comes at a high price in China, at least in human terms. State media channels have traditionally suppressed reports of environmental disasters and the civil unrest that frequently follows but increasingly these reports are coming out as the number of news channels proliferates. The most recent are two cases of [...]
It’s rather encouraging that in the face of crumbling state revenues around the world more governments haven’t turned to export taxes on metals as a way of raising much needed funds. It suggests the old socialist way of taxing business the moment you need a few more dollars in the coffer is largely a thing [...]
About 15 months ago I went on Facebook to see if a friend of mine, who lives in Raleigh, had a Facebook page. When I typed in her name, I was taken to a link to a prayer group for Ella Newmiller. Now I knew that Ella was my friend’s daughter (we do exchange holiday [...]
