Metallica Minerals is preparing to cash-in on China’s booming appetite for bauxite, with its Queensland project set to secure a mining licence followed by off-take deals. And Kairos Minerals, which has already returned strong results from its WA gold exploration project next to Breaker Resources, hits cobalt. Show More
China has had a significant impact on the supply side in two key global commodities during 2016. Going forward, look out for further actions from China on the supply side of commodities. Show More
It’s worthwhile reflecting on the impact of Donald Trump’s election victory on commodities so far. In the immediate aftermath, we witnessed a surge in commodity prices pretty much across the board, with the obvious exception of gold – viewed by some as a likely laggard investment in the growth-fuelled Trump... Show More
A lot has changed in the commodity space over the past 12 months. For starters the London Metal Exchange (LME) index of prices fell to 2,049 during January 2016, but it’s since recovered strongly to 2,799 (graphic 1). This appears to reflect a very significant situation – the worst seems... Show More
Over the past 35 years, movements in metal prices have shown a strong tendency to converge and little tendency for prolonged periods in which one metal price has displayed unusual strength or weakness. A summary of analysis based on price movements in the six main daily traded base metals -... Show More
One insight into the short-term pressures on metal prices comes from movements in the price structure on forward markets. The blue bars in the chart are a summary measure of the differences between forward prices and cash prices for the six main daily traded nonferrous metals - aluminium, copper, lead,... Show More
One thing we know with certainty about the lithium market: the consensus forecasts are wrong. It is not possible to use more lithium than is going to be produced. Ultimately, supply will have to rise faster than expected or usage prove weaker. Prices will play a role in which of... Show More
Carl Icahn has highlighted the disruptive potential of ride-broking services with a $100M investment in Lyft, a rival to Uber. At the same time, Google has received permission for more extensive testing of its driverless cars in California and for more limited testing in the UK. In developed countries, car... Show More
Chinese steel production in the first two months of 2015 is estimated by the World Steel Association to have fallen by 0.2% compared with the corresponding period in 2014. The implied transition to a less metal intensive economy was always to be expected despite the unrealistically contrary expectations held by... Show More
AUD/USD - the potential has emerged for technical base forming. However, a further rally is still required to break key resistance, to activate a technical buy signal (It originally generated a technical sell signal at 0.9203 on 10/9/14) It is significant that the potential for AUD base forming has emerged at... Show More
Rio's remarkable turnaround in aluminium. Lots of remarkable things and figures in Rio Tinto's 2013 results. The $US10.2 billion profit comfortably beat market consensus, as did the annual dividend of $US1.92 a share. Then there was the stunning operating cost reductions, as chief executive Sam Walsh crooned from a soggy... Show More
The worst performers in the commodity space remain aluminium and thermal coal, which both hit a post-2010 low during January. Given abundant supply and weak demand, there is no sign of relief on the horizon. Show More