October 16, 2021 – Nickel and aluminium, along with copper and zinc, staged a strong rally on Friday. While copper closed at more than $10,000 per tonne and zinc is at more than $3,800 per tonne, nickel briefly jumped back above $20,000. Aluminium joined the trend and briefly jumped above $3,200. In the European Union, the first rotten spots are showing on the tender offspring Green Deal – Frans Timmermans, EC Vice-President, is now recommending nuclear power again. And there has been a fire at the Italian stainless steel producer Marcegaglia.
Aluminium and Nickel Rally Continues
After falling below $19,000 per tonne on Thursday, nickel futures on the LME more than made up for it on Friday, briefly jumping above $20,000. Even after the close of trading on Friday, futures managed to hold at a high level and only just below the 20,000 mark. Nickel on the SHFE was also up again on Friday by just over 3%.
Aluminium at over $ 3,200
Aluminium did little differently. Whereas at the beginning of the week aluminium values on the LME were still just under $3,000 per tonne, they briefly managed to jump above the $3,200 mark at the end of the weekend and stood at around $3,172/tonne after the close of trading. China continues to determine the development of aluminium prices and thus, at the end of the week, the SHFE went up by 2.69%.
EU Green Deal on the brink of collapse after only 3 months?
It was only in July 2021 that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the EU Green Deal for the Net Zero Target 2050. With the emergence of the global energy crisis, the tender buds of the green transformation in Europe already seem to be wilting and turning brown again.
Energy crisis should lead to green transformation faster
As recently as the beginning of September, Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the European Commission (EC), had announced in no uncertain terms that the energy crisis would only fuel and accelerate the green transformation.
Reproach: Change should have started 5 years earlier
Only a few days later, this turned into accusations on the part of Timmermans that if the change had been started 5 years earlier, we would not be in this crisis situation today.
Timmermans encourages Bulgaria to build nuclear power plant
In the face of rising energy prices, pragmatism quickly comes through, even for Vice-Presidents of the European Commission. Even if Timmermans still sees no future for coal-fired power plants, nuclear power and natural gas now seem to have become very green.
At least this is what has just happened in Bulgaria, where Timmermans is encouraging the government there to revive plans for a long-buried nuclear power plant. In the face of the first crisis and a confrontation with reality, this does not sound like a long life expectancy for the EU Green Deal. The first leaves are already falling.
Fire at Italian stainless steel producer Marcegaglia
A fire caused damage to part of pickling line 2 at the Italian production site of the stainless steel producer Marcegaglia during the night of 13-14 October 2021. So far, the causes and the exact amount of damage are still unknown. According to the plant, customers affected by the fire will be informed separately about the possible downtime, which could amount to several weeks.
Read also:
- Stainless Espresso: Demand pick up for HRC, heavy plates and aluminium continues
- Stainless Espresso: Taiwan to introduce carbon pricing mechanism in 2023
- Stainless Espresso: Chinese aluminium capacities further down
We at the Gerber Group have been trading in stainless steel worldwide for over 20 years. We are your experts when it comes to purchasing, import, logistics and services. Information is a vital part of this. Because only then can you and we make the right decisions. Do you have any questions? Contact us now.
Disclaimer: Many things here represent our opinion. Others are information from the Internet. We can therefore never claim to be correct or complete. And never base a business decision solely on the news you receive from us.
