Commodities Weekly All eyes on China The more industrial commodities have had a good week, which was vindicated to some extent on Friday by data showing a surge in China’s commodity imports in September. Meanwhile, the minutes from the... 13th October 2017 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Does the rally in alumina prices have legs? The jump in alumina prices is probably premised largely on the prospect of winter capacity closures in China. But given that aluminium production could also fall, the market may not be as tight as it... 9th October 2017 · 1 min read
Commodities Weekly A busy week ahead … It was a relatively quiet week on the news front, at least until the US labour data on Friday. The 33,000 drop in non-farm payrolls came as a surprise, even though markets had expected hurricane... 6th October 2017 · 1 min read
Metals Chart Pack Hold on to your hard hats! The prices of most metals fell in September as a rising US dollar and upward revisions to expectations of US interest rate hikes weighed on investor sentiment. Signs of somewhat softer economic... 5th October 2017 · 1 min read
Africa Economics Update African markets soften in September A combination of rising political risk and falling commodity prices caused key African markets to weaken over the past month. Only a few markets bucked the trend, and they gained very little ground. 28th September 2017 · 1 min read
Metals Data Response Global Steel Production (Aug.) World Steel Association (WSA) data showed a 4.9% y/y increase in global steel production in January-August, with output rising in all the major producers except Japan. That said, global output was... 21st September 2017 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update China Metal Output Monitor China increased its output of most refined metals in the first eight months of the year. The main exceptions were zinc and nickel. 20th September 2017 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Stock data at odds with prices There has been a dramatic drawdown of Shanghai lead inventories in the last month and a surge in LME copper stocks in the last week. Otherwise, total stock movements have been relatively subdued, with... 18th September 2017 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Investor sentiment could be about to turn Sentiment towards metals remained broadly positive in Q3 as the prospect of capacity cuts in China later in the year supported industrial metals prices whilst heightened geopolitical risks buoyed... 15th September 2017 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update China Industrial Metals Demand Monitor (Aug.) China’s August activity and spending data suggest that the slowdown that started in July continued into August. In particular, a downturn in infrastructure spending does not bode well for metals... 14th September 2017 · 1 min read
Metals Data Response South Africa’s Mine Production (Jul.) The weak July data for South Africa’s PGM mine output add to evidence that the market is tightening. We expect output to remain soft in the remainder of the year. 7th September 2017 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Still cautious on copper … A combination of investor optimism about future demand, the depreciation of the dollar and disruptions to mine supply have been the key drivers of this year’s rally in the price of copper. But, in our... 5th September 2017 · 1 min read
Commodities Weekly Metals on a roll The prices of most commodities – notably industrial metals – rose this week. While fundamentals have been supportive, we think that the most recent rallies in prices have been exaggerated by... 25th August 2017 · 1 min read
Metals Data Response Global Steel Production (Jul.) World Steel Association (WSA) data showed a 4.6% y/y rise in global steel production in January-July, with output rising in all major producers bar Japan. 24th August 2017 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update Investors exaggerate move in metals prices Whilst fundamentals have played a role in the most recent rallies in industrial metals, we think that speculative activity has exacerbated the move up in prices. In some cases – notably copper –... 24th August 2017 · 1 min read
Industrial Metals Update No shortage of tin now! The ongoing surge in ShFE tin stocks was the main story in the last month. In fact, inventories of most ShFE metals have risen in the last four weeks, while stocks of nearly all the LME metals have... 23rd August 2017 · 1 min read
