November 2009

Margins up but US Aluminum Semis Market Still Looks Weak

by Stuart Burns on November 25, 2009

Style:    Category: Non-ferrous Metals, Supply & Demand

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Don’t be fooled by a firm aluminum price. Producers of downstream products such as flat rolled sheet and plate, and extruded products such as bar, sections and tubular products are still suffering even though margins have improved from the start of the year. According to Metal Bulletin, plate prices have followed the primary price higher [...]

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MetalMiner Achieves Top 100 Green Rating from Technorati

by Lisa Reisman on November 25, 2009

Style:    Category: Green

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Technorati is to bloggers what Google is to everyone else¦.it’s a search engine that blog sites like MetalMiner examine to better understand how content stacks up compared to other blog sites.  The site tracks both, “the authority and influence of blogs, but also the most comprehensive and current index of who and what is most [...]

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When is a Bubble not a Bubble?

by Stuart Burns on November 25, 2009

Style:    Category: Uncategorized

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So is Asia in the grip of a bubble or just enjoying a healthy reaction to excessive gloom and doom of the end of last year? That’s a good question that is taxing many both in the region and observing from afar. Frederic Neumann, Senior Asia Economist at HSBC in Hong Kong, is reported in [...]

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Alcoa to Idle Italian Aluminum Smelters

by Stuart Burns on November 24, 2009

Style:    Category: Global Trade, Non-ferrous Metals

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Alcoa announced last week it will temporarily idle production at two aluminum smelters at Fusina and Portovesme in Italy after the European Commission ruled that the Italian government must end preferential electricity tariffs to the company according to Reuters. The smelters have a combined capacity of 194,000 metric tons of aluminum per year and directly [...]

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Cliffs Natural Resources Will Add Chromite and FerroChrome Capability

by Lisa Reisman on November 24, 2009

Style:    Category: Commodities, M&A Activity

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Cliffs Natural Resources announced yesterday it would acquire the Ring of Fire chromite properties of Freewest Resources Canada. Cliffs would own 100% of two deposit sites, Black Thor and Black Label and 50% of the Big Daddy site located in Northern Ontario. Cliffs not only intends to mine chromite ore, but also process 400,000-800,000 tons [...]

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Société Générale “Bear Case” Looks at Global Collapse

by Stuart Burns on November 24, 2009

Style:    Category: Macroeconomics

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The US has Nouriel Roubini and the UK has Ambrose Evans-Pritchard — well, maybe not quite, with all due respect to Mr. Evans-Pritchard; but you get my point. Both commentators, regardless of their credentials, are frequently telling us how bad things really are if only we had the vision to read between the lines. Well, [...]

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Steel By the Numbers

by Lisa Reisman on November 23, 2009

Style:    Category: Ferrous Metals, Supply & Demand

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The World Steel Association published global crude steel production numbers late last week. Global production for the month of October increased 13.1% from October of last year. But overall, total global steel production fell by 13.5% for the first 9 months of 2009 vs. the same period in 2008. Not surprisingly, all of the main [...]

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Car Tires Help Steel Producers Save Money and Go Green

by Stuart Burns on November 23, 2009

Style:    Category: Ferrous Metals, Green

Keywords: ,

As the climate debate rages some involved are suggesting instead of imposing carbon caps law makers should encourage scientific investment to reduce carbon emissions. And while agencies would no doubt claim they are doing that, a recent development in the steel industry underlines the potential.  According to this article hundreds of thousands of Australia’s used [...]

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