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Commodities News

Up-to-date news on raw materials


FT Mercati provides subscribers with a dedicated commodities news bulletin to stay up-to-date.
Here is a selection of the latest news:

7/11/2025

UK - SECONDARY ALUMINIUM MARKETS MOVE SLOWLY INTO SUMMER SLOWDOWN

The UK secondary aluminium markets showed only small movements in the week to Wednesday July 9 ahead of the seasonal summer slowdown, when smelters will close for maintenance breaks and with export demand into Asia slowing for the same reason.
Ingot makers were set to shut down for two weeks between now and mid-August, with spot trading grinding to a near-total halt amid the traditional period for worker vacations, shutdowns and maintenance.
Trading appeared low-key in all secondary aluminium markets in the near term, and trade sources expected quiet business conditions in July and August.
As usual, there were expectations of renewed demand in September, but business confidence was being undermined by the shadows cast by subdued manufacturing levels, energy and labor costs, exchange rates, and the threat of US import tariffs and potential reciprocal action.
Relatively tight scrap availability in the UK has been affected by strong demand from export markets in recent weeks, with secondary grade material moving primarily to India and Southeast Asia. This competition between domestic and international buyers has supported scrap prices at a time when the downstream ingot margin was slowing for the summer shutdowns.
The prices for primary grades of scrap were little changed this week, supported by a firm LME aluminium cash price.

7/11/2025

BASKET OPEC PRELIMINARY PRICE

OPECNA, the news agency of OPEC, announced the OPEC Basket preliminary price
10 july = $ 71.23 /b (down from previous daily value)
(The OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) introduced on 16 June 2005, is currently made up of the following: Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia , UAE and Venezuela.

7/11/2025

ZINC MARKET TIGHT IN EUROPE, SEASONALLY SLOW IN US, ASIA

The Asian and US zinc markets were quiet during the week ended Tuesday July 8, as is typical during the summer months, while some tightness was observed in the European market, sources have told Fastmarkets.
EUROPE
The bulk of participants that Fastmarkets spoke with this past week noted a significant lack of demand in the region. Traders said that few regional producers have been able to provide material, limiting spot market activity.
SHANGHAI
Zinc premiums in China remained stable in the week to Tuesday July 8. The market remained quiet amid persistent import losses and a seasonal lull in activity, with minimal spot trading. “The import window was at a loss. Most offers were around $120/tonne, for duty-free units, but I didn’t hear of any deals,” a Shanghai-based source said. All participants said that the assessed range reflects the tradeable levels from the previous week, after no deals were reported in the market.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
The zinc market in Southeast Asia continued to be unchanged amid thin spot demand, according to participants. One market source noted that few new cargoes have been booked recently, with cargoes from Japan, South Korea, and Australia moving slowly due to subdued spot demand. Indian-origin cargoes were also reportedly limited.
UNITED STATES
The US market was relatively quiet during the pricing session, which market participants expected during this time of year, and also due to a short working week because of Independence Day on July 4 which saw some market participants out of office from July 3. "It's deathly quiet," a trader in the regione said "There's just not much crossing our desk right now," .

7/11/2025

UAE, SAUDI IMPORT MARKETS MOSTLY STEADY; UAE CRC PRICES WIDEN DOWN

Most flat steel import markets in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia remained stable during the week ended Tuesday July 8, except for UAE cold-rolled coil prices which widened downward.
The markets were quiet amid a seasonal slowdown, sources told Fastmarkets.
UAE
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil import, cfr Jebel Ali, UAE was $465-490 per tonne on Tuesday, unchanged week on week.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel cold-rolled coil import, cfr Jebel Ali, UAE was $520-580 per tonne on Tuesday, widening downward by $20 per tonne to $540-580 per tonne.
Saudi Arabia
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil import, cfr Saudi Arabia (1.2 mm gauge) was unchanged at $520-530 per tonne on Tuesday.

7/11/2025

INDIAN ALUMINIUM SCRAP IMPORT MARKET SLOWS ON WEAK DOLLAR

Trading in the Indian aluminium scrap market was quiet this week with buyers struggling to find suitable offer prices.
One reason was the weakness of the dollar versus the euro and pound sterling. The softening of the US currency’s value has resulted in exporters in Europe and the UK seeking higher prices in dollar terms to avoid suffering losses in euros or pounds.
“US material is always favored in India because of the availability of shredded material, but the weak dollar has made UK and European material even less attractive in comparison,” a trader said.
The strength of the US market in recent weeks, however, meant that prices there were similarly unappealing to Indian buyers.
“Demand in India is good. I’m talking about the local aluminium demand or demand from the domestic scrap market,” an aluminium producer said. “Demand from international exports is really very hard because we are not getting good prices from the export market, except Japan and Korea.”

7/11/2025

INDEXES 10 July

(Changes from the previous figure are indicated in brackets):
BALTIC DRY INDEX = 1465 (increasing)
Shipping and freight cost index. Despite its name, it collects data from the world's major routes and not only those of the Baltic Sea.

CRB COMMODITY INDEX = 369.42 (falling)
The Commodity Research Bureau has been published since 1958 and is an index on commodities

LME INDEX = 4186.60 (rising)
London Metal Exchange index of non-ferrous metals, world reference.
Currently, the London Metal Exchange Index consists of 6 metals with the following weights: Aluminium (42.8%), Copper (31.2%), Zinc (14.8%), Lead (8.2%), Nickel (2%) and Tin (1%). The weights of the six metals are derived from the global production volume and the trade liquidity averaged over the previous five-year period.