The Renewables Monthly Metals Index (MMI) fell 6.4% with notable drops in steel prices, particularly for plate. Source: MetalMiner Insights Biden’s Plan for a More Renewable US Breaking news in the US Green Energy push. The Biden Administration has released an “action plan” intended to accelerate permitting on new green projects. The goal is to loosen […]
The MetalMiner Team
The Future of Steel Supply: The Facts Thus Far
It’s first-year economics: everything comes down to supply and demand. Historically, the push and pull between these two massive market forces are cyclical, and that includes steel. When you have more demand than supply, prices go up. Eventually, the prices get so high that people stop buying. After a while, the steel supply builds up, […]
Russia’s ‘ruble ransom’ — how oil demands might affect aluminum prices, steel prices
Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin made some tough talk about forcing “unfriendly countries” to pay for Russian gas in rubles, leading us to wonder how that might impact aluminum prices and steel prices. There are fears that Russia’s economic isolation will begin to affect aluminum prices or steel prices. Those impacts would further burden manufacturers […]
MetalMiner Q&A: LME nickel turmoil, volume volatility and what’s next for the exchanges
The MetalMiner team has broken down the significant fluctuations in the LME nickel contract this month. But now that a few weeks have passed since the LME first suspended trading, it’s time to take a look at some other interesting trends at play on the LME and elsewhere. In this question-and-answer session, MetalMiner’s Stuart Burns […]
LME suspends nickel trading due to short squeeze
The London Metal Exchange (LME) halted nickel trading effective 8:15 a.m. London time today. The contract will remain suspended for the remainder of today. According to the LME, the price movement in Asia overnight combined with the situation between Russia and Ukraine led to the decision to halt trading. Furthermore, the LME said it would […]
The MetalMiner take on initial sanctions imposed by the West on Russia
Although the West issued a new round of sanctions late on Sunday, it remains unclear what effect they will have. The new sanctions, including the prohibition of Russia flying over European airspace, as well as the funding of arms for Ukraine, came on Sunday. Nobody at MetalMiner believed the earlier sanctions through Friday would put […]
Green energy boom now biting all of Europe — and the USA, too
In 2018, a pair of us on the MetalMiner team attended the “premier aluminum conference in Europe” — Aluminum 2018 Dusseldorf. Although Dusseldorf felt like a charming Ohio blue collar town with good beer, one of us left the event with a deep cough (obviously pre-Covid). Oddly enough, the weather alert app kept displaying daily […]
January 2021 Monthly Metal Outlook report is out
We have officially turned the page on 2020. Buyers should make sure to equip themselves with the knowledge to source smartly after what was a volatile 2020. In that vein, the MetalMiner Monthly Metal Outlook (MMO) report for the month of January is now available. In addition, readers will find news, analysis and much more […]
MetalMiner breaks down Cleveland-Cliffs’ acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA
As we noted earlier this week, the Cleveland-Cliffs acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA came at a price tag of $1.4 billion. This comes after Cleveland-Cliffs acquired AK Steel earlier this year (among other things, AK Steel is the lone remaining U.S. producer of electrical steel). The deal includes nearly all of the ArcelorMittal subsidiary’s North American facilities […]
Don Hauser: Five things to watch out for heading into steel contracting season
This has been a volatile year for global markets, with already slowing economic growth compounded by the destructive impact of the coronavirus pandemic.