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Spot iron ore prices again topped $140 per tonne c.f.r. China on Friday as steelmakers resumed buying, encouraged by an upturn in steel tags.
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Growing optimism about China’s economic outlook pushed reinforcing bar prices to a seven-month high in Shanghai on Tuesday.
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Chinese steel futures were mixed amid unexpectedly weak demand in China, a situation exacerbated by high inventories.
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Two Chinese steel mill executives will be charged along with four Rio Tinto employees, one of whom China alleges took tens of millions of yuan in bribes, according to a state media report.
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The Chinese government is expected to publish details of a revised steel industry policy in June that covers such areas as upgrading technology, reducing carbon emissions, and mergers and acquisitions, an unnamed official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology told the state-owned Xinhua News Agency.
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China will find it hard to accept a 50-percent hike in 2010-11 iron ore contract prices, market sources said.
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Deal or no deal? That’s been the big question hovering over the Chinese iron ore market since word spread that the country’s steel mills had agreed to a provisional price hike. And while an answer appears to have emerged, it only sparks further questions.
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Chinese steel futures rebounded strongly ahead of the week-long shutdown for the Chinese New Year holiday as the U.S. dollar softened and major mills such as Baosteel Group Corp. Ltd. and Anshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. raised ex-works prices for March.
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Ian Bauert has been appointed Rio Tinto’s managing director in China as the Anglo-Australian miner seeks to mend relations with the country seven months after key Shanghai staff were detained by police.
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Chinese steel futures registered a sharp drop amid rumors of further tightening of measures by the central bank and the rise of the U.S. dollar.
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China plans to eliminate 20 million tonnes of outdated pig iron capacity this year, according to the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection.
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Inquiries for Chinese ferrosilicon increased this past week, although export prices and offers remain unchanged.
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Chinese wire rod and rebar export offer prices have dropped $15 to $20 per tonne in the past week due to lower domestic prices.
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The Chinese automotive pipe market is being targeted by Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp., which has agreed to take a 61-percent stake in the Chinese subsidiary of pipemaker Toshida Industry Co. Ltd.
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China shut down 16.9 million tonnes of outdated steel capacity last year, nearly three times its 6-million-tonne target, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
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Chinese steel plate export offers have fallen in line with a lower domestic market to a range of $550 to $560 per tonne f.o.b. from $570 to $575 three weeks ago.
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China’s high stocks should buttress consumers against suppliers’ attempts to boost chrome ore prices following a declaration of force majeure by Turkey’s Eti Krom AS, Chinese market participants said.
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China’s silicon export market is stagnant for the second consecutive week but could rise after the Chinese New Year holiday in mid-February, given tight supply and high costs.
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China’s ferroalloy output dipped in December’s seasonal turndown, but full-year production jumped 20 percent and is expected to continue to gain amid growing steel demand.
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Five aluminum smelters in southwest China’s Sichuan province have been allowed to buy electricity at prices linked to the price of aluminum, according to the country’s official Xinhua News Agency.
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In terms of the potential impact of China on the rest of the world’s steel markets, China is a major stabilizing force on the global steel and metal industries—when there are shortages China exports more, and when there is oversupply China imports more, London-based analyst Jim Lennon said in a rebuttal to the story above.
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The global economic crisis has exacerbated growing tensions between Western and Chinese trade relations, and within the global steel industry itself.
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China’s appetite for copper remains strong amid stockpiling demand and a wider arbitrage window, market participants said.
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China’s copper imports increased sharply in December on arbitrage and stockpiling, according to preliminary customs data.