The global supply of zinc concentrates is shrinking fast, but it might take some time for the resulting tightness in zinc refined metal and, in turn higher premiums, to take hold in the market, zinc sources said. "The game changer was the ...
Tags: Zinc Metal, zinc
China's apparent oil demand in 2015 grew 5.8% year on year to 11.11 million b/d, the fastest pace since 2011, despite the country's economy growing at the slowest rate since 1990, Platts calculations based on recently released official data ...
Tags: oil demand, fuel oil
With oil product stocks at moderate levels, Shandong's teapot refineries have kept refinery run rates relatively high, which is supporting demand for feedstock crudes, sources said this week. Regular importer Beifang Asphalt Fuel in ...
Tags: oil product, bitumen
China has more than doubled its first round oil product export quotas to 20.93 million mt from a year ago to 27 refineries in 2016, industry sources told Platts Tuesday. It contrasted to the 9.75 million mt released for the same period ...
Tags: oil product, gasoline
After dropping for five consecutive weeks, ferrous scrap prices in eastern China remained stable for the second week following the recent increase in domestic rebar and seaborne iron ore prices. Platts assessed heavy melting scrap 6 mm ...
Tags: ferrous scrap, iron ore
The Chinese government Tuesday refrained from adjusting retail oil product prices in line with global crude oil fluctuations for the first time in nearly three years, sending a strong signal to the market that it believes prices may have ...
Tags: oil product, crude oil
China's iron ore importers need to keep a close eye on the country's steel mills as they mull output cuts and shutdowns amid a year-end credit crunch, the China Iron and Steel Association said Thursday. Prices of iron ore derivatives ...
The price of Australian alumina continued to drift sideways Thursday, leaving Platts daily assessment unchanged at $200/mt FOB, despite a slight slippage of Yuan 15/mt ($2.30) in Chinese domestic prices in Shanxi province. The Australian ...
Tags: alumina, Australian alumina
Investment bank Goldman Sachs late Wednesday lowered its iron ore price forecast for 2017 by $5/dmt to $35/dmt CFR China after a faster-than-expected softening in seaborne prices. "Iron ore prices have reached our $40/dmt forecast one ...
Tags: iron ore price, steel
The announced merger between petrochemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont will have a significant impact on the low-density polyethylene market and could be just the beginning of large-scale consolidations, an industry consultant said ...
Tags: Dow Chemical, DuPont, polyethylene, LDPE
Brazil's Braskem has been buying bigger volumes of naphtha from Europe in recent days due to low stocks in Brazil as the petrochemicals producer continues to negotiate with Brazilian state-led oil company Petrobras over the terms of a ...
Artlant, Europe's largest purified terephthalic acid producer, is in the process of searching for an investment partner or buyer for the business, a source close to the company said Thursday. As a result, any plans to start up production ...
Tags: Artlant, Terephthalic Acid, PTA
The US vinyl acetate monomer market is seeing a tightening of supply that will likely push pricing higher through the first quarter of 2016 despite falling feedstock prices and a weaker energy sector, sources said. US VAM increased $20/mt ...
New Orleans bunker fuel remained in short supply Thursday, which has caused high-sulfur product prices in that port to spike relative to the nearby and competing Houston market. New Orleans IFO 380 3.5%S was assessed at $205/mt ex-wharf ...
Australia-listed Stanmore Coal has appointed mining contractor Golding to restart production at its Isaac Plains mine in the first half of 2016, the miner said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange Thursday. Stanmore ...
Tags: thermal coal, coal