Codelco halts world's largest open pit copper mine over strike

A week-long strike by contract workers at world’s No.1 copper producer Codelco spread Tuesday to Chuquicamata, the Chilean company’s second largest mine, forcing the miner to halt operations.

Protesters began demonstrations on July 21 in demand for better pay and working conditions, blocking roads into some of the country's largest copper mines.

Things took a turn for the worse Friday, when a worker was shot dead by police near Codelco's smaller Salvador mine in northern Chile. Strikers then proceeded to seize control of the operation over the weekend and it remains occupied by the protesters, Cooperatival.cl reported(in Spanish).

Striking workers want Codelco to join their negotiations with the mining company's contractors and subcontractors, but the state-owned miner has so far declined.

Chuquicamata, which is located 1,650 km north of the Chilean capital of Santiago, is Codelco’s main division, accounting for over 40% of the miner’s total production in 2014.

Chuquicamata, which is located 1,650 km north of the Chilean capital of Santiago, is Codelco’s main division, accounting for over 40% of the miner’s total production in 2014.

The copper giant is in the midst of executing a $25 billion investment plan aimed to expand its decades-old flagship mines and search for new high-grade deposits.

Copper, which accounts for 60% of Chile's exports and 15% of gross domestic product, has lost 11% of its value during the past year. Only yesterday it hit a six-year low as slowing demand in China increased concerns over a glut.

India cuts tariff value on imported gold

The Indian Government today announced cut in import tariff value for gold and silver . The import tariff value of gold was slashed by nearly 6%, in accordance with prices of precious metals in the international market. Meantime, tariff value on imported silver has been left unchanged.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) issued notification in this regard reducing the gold import tariff value to $354 per 10 grams. The import tariffs are being slashed from the existing $376 per 10 grams. Meanwhile the import tariff value of Silver has been kept unchanged at $498 per kilogram.

The government move to lower the import tariff value is in primarily on account of weakening gold prices in the global and domestic markets. The possibilities of US Fed raising rates by September this year have also hit the sentiments badly for gold.

Meanwhile, gold prices edged lower on Singapore session today, on the back of rising dollar strength and higher US interest rate hopes. The prices slipped to five-year low level of $1,084.80 per Oz. Many brokerages have downgraded their earlier forecasts on gold prices. For instance, Macquarie has cut its gold price forecasts by 7% to 15% from this year through 2019, signaling a possible long term down-trend for the yellow metal. The investment firm has cut its gold price estimate for the current year to $1,152 per Oz from the earlier $1,249 per Oz.

The gold in India declined almost Rs 320 per 10 grams to Rs 25,050 per 10 grams on declining demand from retail buyers. Industrial demand for gold also remained weak. Silver too witnessed significant fall on lack of demand. The prices dropped by Rs 380 per kg to touch Rs 33,950 per kg.

Tariff value is the base price on which the customs duty on imported gold or silver is calculated and it further helps prevent under-invoicing.

Global Zinc market ends in surplus during first five months in 2015

According to the latest published metals balances report by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS), the worldwide zinc market has recorded a marginal surplus during January to May this year. During the entire year 2014, the global zinc market had recorded deficit.

As per WBMS data, the global zinc market recorded small surplus of 214 kt during the initial five months of the year from January to May in 2015. It should be noted that the worldwide zinc market had reported a deficit of 145 kt during the entire year 2014.

Global refined zinc production witnessed rise of 8.2% during the five-month period. The Chinese production of locally refined zinc surged higher by nearly 14.4% when compared with the corresponding five-month period in 2014.

The global demand for the metal has declined by 49 kt when matched with January to May in 2014. The Chinese apparent demand fell by 0.2% over the previous year to 2,522 kt. It accounted for just under 46% of the global refined zinc demand. The Japanese demand for the metal dropped 18% when matched with the levels recorded during Jan-May ’14. The Japanese demand during the five-month period totaled 171.9 kt.

The reported stock of the metal has declined by 75,000 tonnes during the five-month period. The LME zinc stocks declined by 15.9 kt during the month of May and accounted for 41% of the global stock of the metal.

The Chinese zinc metal imports reduced significantly by nearly 43% during Jan-May ’15 to 178 kt when compared with the imports of 311 kt during the same period last year.

Copper may drop in the short term: SMM Survey

Copper prices are expected to trade lower in short term, as per the latest survey conducted by the Shanghai Metals Market among Chinese copper plate/sheet, strip and foil producers.

According to the survey, 36% of Chinese producer expect copper prices to fall in the short term.

“Both LME and SHFE reported growth in copper inventories recently, while consumption is still sluggish in the offseason for downstream sectors, so copper prices will face downside risk,” these producers told SMM.

Another 32% of produces believe copper prices will move sideways, noting that the strong dollar will place pressure on base metals, but on the bright side, China’s stock market seemed to stabilize lately, which may help restore confidence. Technical indicators point to both support and resistance for copper prices, these producers added.

Only 5% of the surveyed see copper prices to rise considering positive reports from macro front.

“The Greek government secured another bailout recently and China’s stock market leveled out, these factors will shore up market and benefit risky assets, including the red metal,” a few producers said.

The remaining 27% are not sure about the price trends.

Gold crash isn’t over — prices near five-year lows

Gold prices continued its downward spiral Tuesday trading close to their lowest level in five years amid rising expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates later this year.

The precious metal dipped down the $1,100 an ounce-mark in early Asia hours, but came back up above that level on bargain hunting.

Prices were just modestly lower in early U.S. trading Tuesday, changing hands at $1,105.10 an ounce at 9:15 am ET.

On Monday, prices dropped down to $1,080.00 an ounce, the lowest since March 2010, causing a stock blood bath among gold miners.

Brokers and market analysts are speculating that at least one major fund took advantage of the thin market to push the gold price through a support level on the charts

Brokers and market analysts are speculating that at least one major fund took advantage of the thin market to push the gold price through a support level on the charts, possibly because they had already sold gold short.

They said the sudden collapse bore similarities to “bear raids” by Chinese funds in copper in January, which drove red metal prices down to a six-year low.

“There is to my mind no coincidence that this happened in the quietest, thinnest period of the week,” David Govett, head of precious metals at Marex Spectron in London, told Financial Times.

“Anyone who trades gold knows not to put any volume into the market at this time, unless they deliberately want to move it in a big way,” Govett added.

Kitco’s analyst Jim Wyckoff says that a sustained drop below the $1,100 mark “would then open the door to still lower prices, with an ultimate downside objective being the 2008 low of $681.00.” And he illustrates his point with the following chart.

Monday's price dip dragged gold companies stocks down to historical lows:

• Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX, TSE:ABX), the world's top producer of the metal, sank 16% to $9.58 (Canadian) in the Toronto Exchange, the lowest price in 26 years.
• Goldcorp (NYSE:GG)(TSE:G), the world’s biggest gold miner by market value, and Eldorado Gold (TSE:ELD) (NYSE:EGO) both hit their lowest in a decade.
• Kinross Gold (TSE:K) (NYSE:KGC) declined to $2.21, its weakest level since 2001.
• Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), another large gold producers, fell 11.4% to around $18.33, the lowest in seven months. It was the biggest loser on the S&P 500.

Gold prices have been steadily falling since a peak of $1,900 an ounce in September 2011.

Why Aluminum prices to drop in July?

Aluminum prices, though rebounding from six-year low thanks to China’s efforts to stabilize plummeting stock market, still face downward pressure from poor market fundamentals, enanchu.com predicts. 

Expansions of low-cost new capacity are exacerbating already oversupplied market. For example, Xinjiang Qiya Aluminum just put online 250,000-tpy capacity, which will bring its total operational capacity up to 850,000-tpy by the end of July. 

Xinjiang East Hope is in the process of commissioning its 900,000-tpy new project. More capacities might enter operations once aluminum prices become attractive. Small-scale production cuts have been reported in Henan, but these are just a tip of the iceberg in relation to overwhelming capacity in operation.  

Aluminum demand has taken a hit by sluggish housing market and falling automobile production and sales. The situation will worsen as the off-season deepens. 

Aluminum costs fell this year, thanks to growing use of captive power, preferential power tariffs offered by local government, as well as lower coal and alumina prices. This will act as another drag on aluminum prices.

Source: SMM

Will LME Nickel continue to outperform base metal complex?

LME nickel overnight closed up 1.05% at $11,580 per ton as other base metals largely finished lower against a strong dollar. Will this continue into the last trading day of the week? 

“Weak demand and a strong dollar will cap gains in the nickel market, and short bets are advised to be built, with stop-loss order at 84,000 yuan for September delivery nickel on the SHFE,” an analyst told SMM in an interview. 

Another analyst from Chaos Ternary Futures expected wide trade in nickel market, with prices between 81,000-89,000 yuan per ton.

In other news, LME nickel inventories fell to 452, 850 as of Jul. 16, down 630 tons from a day earlier. The same day, Jinchuan Group announced to cut its ex-works prices after raising for second consecutive days.