Of particular interest this week:
A number of trends are pointing toward markets bottoming …
World Steel – Chinese boost to production on government stimulus plans.
Copper – Disruptions do what they always do … tighten the market a notch.
Nickel – Price recovery in 6 to 18 mo.
Coal – Thermal JFY settlement. BHP’s outlook for HCC.
SUMMARY
Copper Cu supply disruptions due to weather in Chile.
Nickel BoA forecasts Ni price recovery in Dec16HY. Goldmans outlook is 12 mo later.
Zinc & Lead Energia (EMX) progressing Gorno through evaluations toward production.
Tin Wa-controlled Sn operations make Myanmar the third largest Sn producer.
Aluminium Smelter production costs have been falling.
Gold Indian gold demand improved.
Platinum & Palladium Amplats’ Pt production halved in Mar16Qtr on work stoppages.
Oil Schlumberger outlook comments. Ugandan oil pipeline route.
Coal Thermal JFY settled, down, but well above spot. Comments on HCC outlook by Mike Henry.
Iron Ore Vale is also expecting muted production for 2016.
Shipping Cape freight rates edged upward on steel raw materials demand.
General
World Steel – production surge in March, though growth is limited to a few key countries.
USA – New Housing Starts – continued positive.
USA Industrial Production & Capacity Utilisation – shrinking slowly and underutilised.
Japan – Electricity output – declining demand.