by Taras Berezowsky on February 7, 2012
Style: Industry News
Category: Commodities, Macroeconomics, Non-ferrous Metals, Sourcing Strategies
Keywords: aluminum prices, China, Commodities, commodity volatility, copper prices, EU, Stainless Steel, US manufacturing
Here’s Episode 4 of MetalMiner’s Sourcing Outlook, brought to you by Zycus. In the first episode of 2012, MetalMiner takes a look at the center of the commodity market storm — the EU debt crisis and impending (or already begun?) recession. In MetalWatch, we check in on stainless steel, as the ThyssenKrupp-Outokumpu merger looms in [...]
by Stuart Burns on February 6, 2012
Style: Market Analysis
Category: Commodities, Global Trade, Non-ferrous Metals
Keywords: China, Commodities, EU, Gold, metals, Silver, Steel, Zinc
A report in the FT notes the Chinese manufacturing sector has made a surprisingly strong start to the year, as the purchasing managers index (PMI), an important gauge of factory growth, rose to 50.5 in January from 50.3 a month earlier. The result helped underpin recent strength in metals prices, Standard Bank wrote in a [...]
However much Outokumpo talks about the desirability of merging the complimentary products ranges of their company with Inoxum, the recently spun-off stainless division of ThyssenKrupp, the fact is: this merger is all about rationalization. The European — if not the global — stainless market is characterized by too much (and too high-cost) production capacity. The [...]
Media reports suggests that India has agreed to pay the price of crude oil it imports from Iran in gold, which makes it the first country to drop the US dollar for purchasing the Iranian oil. Citing an Israeli intelligence website, The Times of India has reported that India is opting for gold to repay [...]
Even though Eastman Kodak has declared bankruptcy, there is just enough industrial demand being mustered in the solar panel, battery and conductor sectors, not to mention investment in ETFs and physical metal, to give the silver price its best start in a new year since 1983. According to a recent article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, silver [...]
Continued from Part One. Most economists and commentators surrounding the proceedings at Davos have been focused more on the risks of Greece or Portugal’s potential exit from the euro, or worse — a complete breakup of the peripheral states, leaving just a core of northern economies with Germany at the center. Lloyds Bank in the [...]
The skiing may be great, but the surroundings seem largely lost on attendees at Davos in Switzerland, known to the frivolous of us as more of a top-class ski resort than a once-a-year talking shop for politicians, economists and owners of the largest hedge funds. The Federal Reserve rather stole the show this year when [...]
