Thursday, 29 November 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Nickel Updates
LME Zinc ended at $ 2185 per tonne when last checked, down by $ 16 per tonne. A further increase of 3125 tonnes was noted in Zinc inventories today with total stockpiles at record high of 1200450 tonnes. MCX Zinc settled trading at Rs 110.2 per kg, up 0.23%.
Dollar was largely stronger last night before the US data after which it closed down. However till the time damage was done in metals and it induced selling pressure. Dollar closed marginally lower against the Euro at 1.295.
In the U.S., the Commerce Department reported earlier that new home sales fell by 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted 368000 units in October. There are also concerns about the need for the US Congress to reach a compromise to avoid $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts due to start in January, a combination known as the fiscal cliff that could hurt the world's largest economy.
In Eurozone, National Institute of Statistics said that Spanish retail sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -9.7% in October, from -11.0% in the preceding month.
Greece lenders reached an agreement this week to reduce country's debt-reduction target by EUR 40 billion to 124% of gross domestic product by 2020. But the lack of detail on how Greece will implement reforms needed to meet its new debt targets has affected investor confidence.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Nickel Updates
Top 10 World Crude Steel Producers: January-September 2012
| |||
Rank
|
Country
|
Qty (mt)
|
% change over Jan-Sept. 2011
|
1
|
542.3
|
1.7
| |
2
|
81.3
|
0.4
| |
3
|
68.1
|
5.3
| |
4
|
57.1
|
4.8
| |
5
|
53.7
|
4.3
| |
6
|
52.1
|
3.0
| |
7
|
32.4
|
-5.0
| |
8
|
27.1
|
8.4
| |
9
|
26.0
|
-3.0
| |
10
|
25.10
|
-5.3
| |
Top 10
|
965.2
|
1.8
| |
World
|
1149.4
|
0.6
| |
Source: WSA, JPC; *provisional
| |||
The Minister of Steel, Shri Beni Prasad Verma has said that according to global rankings released by the World Steel Association (WSA), India was the 4th largest crude steel producer in the world in 2010, 2011 as also during January - September 2012.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Shri Verma said, to discourage export of iron ore and to improve availability of iron ore to domestic iron and steel industry at affordable price, the Government has increased the export duty on iron ore from 20% ad valorem to 30% ad valorem on all grades of iron ore (except pellets) with effect from 30-12-2011.
He said, Steel is in a deregulated sector in the country and domestic prices of steel are decided by the individual producers based on market conditions including demand supply scenario, international price trend, cost of raw materials and inputs etc.
Nickel Updates
The inflation numbers in the country are still ruling high and that has forced the Reserve Bank of India to stay away from declining interest rates steadily. One sector that was aiding the lead demand was industrial battery segment. UPS batteries continued to grow robustly this year but the onset of winters is expected to derail this demand as well. The remaining quarter might have to handle subdued demand as UPS and Invertor sales decline in winters.
On MCX, benchmark Lead for December expiry is at Rs 122 per kg. Since testing a low at Rs 108.6 per kg on 26 October, prices are up by 13%. LME lead is trading at $ 2194 per tonne, up 9% since the start of this year. Demand from North America and rising Chinese automobile sales is pushing the prices higher in international markets.