Uncertainty about the global economy and Trump's tariff plans have triggered a sell-off in the US stock market.
And with this volatility in markets, strategists at BNP Paribas expect gold to be a beneficiary amid what it calls "Trump tariff chaos and geopolitical shifts."
In a note to clients on Wednesday, BNP senior commodity strategist David Wilson said the firm expects gold prices to breach $3,000 per ounce for the first time and ultimately reach $3,100 in the coming months.
"The Trump administration issuing a slew of tariff threats and the realigning of international relationships have added a new layer of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, providing a significant boost to gold," Wilson wrote in a note on Wednesday.
BNP's strategists raised their average 2025 forecast average by 8%, with prices expected to push above $3,100 per ounce during the second quarter of 2025, noting tariff fears have "dramatically" tightened the physical gold market.
On Wednesday, gold futures (GC=F) rose above $2,940 per ounce as US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from all countries took effect. Canada and the EU have responded with reciprocal tariffs.
"Physical tightness due to the surge in demand for moving gold into the US ahead of tariffs, a pick-up in central bank buying and an acceleration in physically-backed ETF gold demand have been key YTD gold price supportive factors, and we expect this to continue through 2025," Wilson wrote.
However, Wilson forecasts that in the second half of 2025, "the gold market will price in or normalize" Trump-driven trade risks.
The strategist argues that without an ongoing escalation in trade tensions, gold prices will struggle to maintain further upside momentum in the second half of the year.
Gold futures have rallied more than 12% year to date, hitting multiple record highs since January.
Wall Street has attributed much of these gains to continued central bank buying and tariff uncertainty, including the possibility that even imports of the precious metal into the US won't be spared.
Institutional investors have shipped elevated amounts of physical gold bars to vaults in New York in a move to front-run tariffs and take advantage of a price disparity between London and New York.
Last month, Goldman Sachs analysts raised their year-end gold price forecast to $3,100 per ounce, up from their prior projection of $2,890.
Over the past year, the safe-haven asset has handily outperformed the US stock market, with the price of an ounce of gold rising more than 35% while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) has gained just over 8% in that period.
With China’s large trade surplus likely to remain intact and the Trump administration aiming to turn the US trade deficit into a surplus, the world is facing a ‘clash of mercantilisms’.
The biggest headline from last week’s ‘two sessions’ in China – the concurrent meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – was the government’s promise that GDP growth in 2025 will remain at last year’s level of ‘around 5 per cent’.
Five per cent growth does not sound too bad. Yet China’s economic reality remains less compelling than the headline suggests, and China is unlikely to provide much increase in demand for the rest of the world’s exports.
The basic problem is that China’s policies will end up keeping its very large trade surplus intact. Meanwhile, President Trump wants to turn the US trade deficit into a surplus. There is what one might call a ‘clash of mercantilisms’: neither of these great powers wants to be the world’s consumer of last resort.
Although the confidence of Chinese consumers and businesses alike have taken a sustained knock over the past few years, there have been signs of economic revival in China these past few months.
For one, the real estate sector’s collapse is probably beyond its worst. This is partly thanks to a renewed effort in the past six months to make property more attractive by cutting mortgage rates, lowering down payment requirements, easing ownership restrictions and putting a backstop behind state-owned real-estate developers. New home sales are improving, and there are signs that property prices are stabilizing.
Another sign of recovery is that retail sales – of household appliances in particular – have risen thanks to the availability of subsidies on offer to trade in old goods for new models. As a result, sales growth has gone up to almost 4 per cent at the end of 2024 – still very slow but better than the dangerously low 2–3 per cent growth rates of last summer.
These signs of improvement are the fruit of policymakers’ growing effort last year to give the economy a boost. A notable part of this effort was Xi Jinping’s recent high-profile meeting with corporate leaders, which could be described as a warm metaphorical embrace of the private sector.
The intense activity of recent months may help explain why the stimulus measures announced at last week’s meetings were actually a bit of a disappointment.
Although the government did promise a larger budget deficit in 2025 – 4 per cent of GDP, from 3 per cent in 2024 – Beijing is still far from delivering measures that could decisively raise confidence levels among households and businesses. Compared with the State Council’s promise last month to ‘fundamentally shift our mindset and place greater emphasis on stimulating consumption’, the government’s 2025 work report published last week seemed like mere tinkering.
Two key factors limit Beijing’s desire to deliver a much-needed boost to the economy.
The first is President Trump’s unpredictability. Chinese exports entering the US now face a tariff of some 30 per cent after Trump raised it in two 10 per cent increments. Further hostility seems very likely, not least with respect to capital flows between the countries following the publication of Trump’s America First Investment Policy. However, the nature of any future hostility is very difficult to know upfront.
One might think that a US-induced negative shock to China’s economy would push Beijing to provide more rather than less stimulus, to offset the damage that Trump’s policies will inflict.
Yet China’s preference is to wait and see. As China’s finance minister Lan Fo’an made clear in a press conference last week, Beijing’s aim is to ‘preserve policy space and policy tools to cope with uncertainties coming from either domestic or external sources’.
The second factor, and a further reason why there is little stimulus on offer, is what one might call ‘balance sheet anxiety’. The central government’s debt burden is already close to 100 per cent of GDP, and so the authorities are reluctant to add to it further for fear that financial instability could create a threat to national security. And while the debt burden of China’s local governments is much lower, at around 30 per cent of GDP, their dependence on land-related revenues means that the real estate collapse has left their financial position fragile.
In addition, the measures announced last week seem more biased towards production rather than consumption. A substantial chunk of the RMB 4.4 trillion of special bonds to be issued by local governments this year, for example, will go to repaying their arrears to companies, and to investing more in infrastructure.
Meanwhile, of the RMB 1.8 trillion of special bonds to be issued by the central government this year, only RMB 300 billion is to fund the consumer-focused trade-in programmes that have helped boost retail sales. The rest is to support equipment upgrades, high-tech manufacturing and bank recapitalization.
Pity the Chinese consumer. Despite some signs of economic revival, the last half of 2024 saw consumption expenditure account for less than 30 per cent of China’s GDP growth, the lowest it has been for well over a decade (aside from the Covid era). Things will improve only marginally in 2025.
One way to think about this is that Beijing’s primary goal is not to enhance the welfare of Chinese households, but rather the welfare of the Chinese nation. This in turn requires a production-focused, export-oriented strategy aimed at insulating the Chinese economy from geopolitical risks by emphasizing import-substitution and the creation of a ‘trade powerhouse’.
Indeed, the overriding importance of the nation might well require sacrifices on the part of households. As Xi put it in a speech published at the start of the year: ‘advancing Chinese-style modernization requires great struggle.’
So the upshot of last week’s meetings is that China is likely to remain an essentially mercantilist economy in which a large trade surplus remains a core element. At a time when the US seeks to transform its trade deficit into a surplus, who will be supporting trade?
One hopeful answer to this question is Europe, now that looser fiscal policy seems firmly in the mind of the new German chancellor. For the time being though, it seems unlikely that the answer to this question will be China.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/03/chinas-two-sessions-what-did-we-learn-about-chinese-economy
Crude oil prices inched higher after starting the week with sharp losses, amid reports of rebounding Asian imports and a weaker dollar that should stimulate stronger demand.
At the time of writing Brent crude was trading at $70.05 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $66.75 per barrel, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration made a considerable revision to its supply and demand outlook for this year and next, and the head of the International Energy Agency called for more investments in new oil and gas supply.
Even an estimated U.S. crude oil inventory build, as reported by the American Petroleum Institute, did not offset the effect of the EIA’s report, which saw Brent crude prices rising to an average $75 per barrel in the second quarter on a tighter market. The EIA said, however, that supply will ramp up in the second half of the year, based on the assumption that OPEC+ will not waver from its latest decision to go ahead and add 138,000 bpd to collective production from April.
The head of the International Energy Agency, meanwhile, did a 180-degree turn in his rhetoric, calling for more investment in fresh oil and gas supply after years of preaching peak oil demand and how unnecessary new oil and gas supply is in a world shifting away from hydrocarbons altogether.
“I want to make it clear ... there would be a need for investment, especially to address the decline in the existing fields," Fatih Birol said at the CERAWeek energy conference, as quoted by Reuters. “There is a need for oil and gas upstream investments, full stop.”
On the geopolitical front, meanwhile, bearish events are in progress. The Ukraine just accepted a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, which, if Russia accepts it, would make the lifting of U.S. sanctions on the country’s energy industry much more likely.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
CPC Blend oil loadings from the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) Black Sea terminal rose by some 24% in February from January to 1.68 million barrels per day (bpd), Reuters calculations showed.
Total loadings from the terminal near Russia's port of Novorossiisk rose to 5.930 million metric tons from 5.316 million, two industry sources said.
Kazakh crude exports via the CPC pipeline rose to 5.340 million tons from 4.699 million, while Russia's exports via the route fell to 0.591 million tons from 0.617 million, the sources added.
Higher supply via the CPC pipeline reflected rising oil production. Kazakhstan's daily oil output has hit an all-time record in 2025 after expansion at its Tengiz oilfield.
Kazakhstan's biggest oil producer, Chevron-led Tengizchevroil (TCO), has completed maintenance at the Tengiz oilfield in mid-January and is speeding up its expansion.
The field saw production increase to 904,000 bpd last month from 640,000 bpd in January following completion of maintenance and due to the expansion programme.
The Caspian pipeline, which carries more than 1% of daily global supply, stretches more than 1,500 km (939 miles) and is a main route for Kazakhstan's oil exports.
Shareholders in the CPC include U.S. firms Chevron and Exxon Mobil as well as the Russian state, Russian firm Lukoil, and Kazakh state company KazMunayGas.
By Stephanie Kelly and Arunima Kumar
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices rose 2% on Wednesday, as U.S. government data showed tighter-than-expected oil and fuel inventories, though investors kept an eye on mounting fears of a U.S. economic slowdown and the impact of tariffs on global economic growth.
Brent futures rose $1.39, or 2%, to $70.95 a barrel at 12:52 p.m. EDT (1652 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained $1.47, or 2.2%, to $67.72 a barrel.
U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 1.4 million barrels in the latest week, U.S. government data showed on Wednesday, which was less than the 2-million barrel rise forecasters had expected.
U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 5.7 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.9 million-barrel draw, while distillate stocks also dropped by more than expected.
"This week, the oil build was smaller than expected and gasoline and diesel draws were larger than expected," said Josh Young, Chief Investment Officer, Bison Interests. "This evidences stronger demand and could see oil prices rise as a result."
In recent days, crude futures have been supported by a weaker U.S. dollar and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) moving away from earlier calls of strongly oversupplied oil markets this year, said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.
The dollar hovered near a five-month low against other major currencies, as traders digested tit-for-tat U.S.-EU tariffs and a potential Russia-Ukraine ceasefire.
The dollar index, which fell 0.5% to fresh 2025 lows on Tuesday, boosted oil prices by making crude less expensive for buyers holding other currencies. [USD/]
However, signs of cooling inflation offered investors some respite after U.S. consumer prices increased less than expected in February. Still, U.S. President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs on imports are expected to raise the costs of most goods in the months ahead. Some have taken effect and others have been delayed or are set to kick in later.
Markets worry that tariffs could raise prices for businesses, boost inflation and undermine consumer confidence in a blow to economic growth.
"Fears of a U.S. recession, weakness in U.S. stock markets and concerns over tariffs affecting key oil players such as China, introduced additional market uncertainty and these factors could continue to fuel a bearish sentiment, putting a lid on oil prices," said Hassan Fawaz, chairman and founder of brokerage GivTrade.
Also on Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its forecast for relatively strong growth in global oil demand in 2025, saying air and road travel would support consumption.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-prices-rise-weak-dollar-013810250.html
PARIS (Reuters) - European Union tariffs on U.S. grains, as part of the bloc's riposte to Washington's levies on steel and aluminium, would hurt a European livestock sector reliant on imports for animal feed, industry association FEFAC said on Wednesday.
A large EU trade surplus with the United States in agriculture is a common complaint for U.S. President Donald Trump, though the United States is the EU's biggest supplier of soybeans and a major supplier of corn.
The European Commission earlier announced plans to impose extra duties on up to 26 billion euros ($28 billion) of U.S. imports.
That would involve reintroducing from April 1 tariffs on goods like corn that were suspended after a previous trade battle during Trump's first term, and imposing duties from April 13 on products from a new list that includes soybeans.
Such tariffs would "adversely affect resilience and competitiveness of EU livestock production systems," FEFAC President Pedro Cordero said in a statement.
FEFAC, which represents manufacturers of livestock feed, said feed grains could support a negotiated settlement between the EU and the U.S. avoiding tariffs.
Given its reliance on foreign feed commodities, EU imports from the U.S. "can easily be doubled from current 4 billion euros to 8 billion euros, thus reducing the current U.S. agricultural trade deficit with the EU," Cordero said.
The currently suspended tariff on U.S. corn is 25%, which could price U.S. corn out of major European importing countries like Spain.
Chicago corn and soybean futures were lower on Wednesday, with traders saying the EU counter-measures were adding to concern that U.S. farm exports may be hurt by Trump's tariff policies. [GRA/]
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Mark Potter)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/eu-tariffs-us-grains-hit-174106075.html
As tariff battles escalate, the European Union on Wednesday announced reciprocal tariffs on $28 billion in U.S. products, including soybeans and almonds, the two largest U.S. agricultural exports to EU countries. (DTN file photo by Chris Clayton)
OMAHA (DTN) -- The European Union on Wednesday imposed retaliatory tariffs on $28 billion in U.S. products, including the few major agricultural goods -- notably soybeans and almonds.
Europe's response comes after President Trump put in place 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union, said the U.S. tariffs would impact about $28 billion in European exports, so the EU tariffs would fall in line there. The EU tariffs right now would go into effect on April 1.
"We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers," von der Leyen said. "These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States. The European Union must act to protect consumers and business. The countermeasures we take today are strong but proportionate."
The top five U.S. agricultural and related products exported to the European Union by value are soybeans ($3 billion), almonds ($1.2 billion), pistachios ($689 million), whiskies ($533 million) and food preparation products ($521 million).
Soybeans, almonds, distilled spirits, food preparation products, dairy and pork products are all on the list for tariffs.
* USDA leaves US corn stocks unchanged, baffling traders
*USDA reports US wheat inventories higher than trade expectations
Chinese demand a worry for US soy market
(Recasts to reflect market moves, updates headline, adds closing prices)
By P.J. Huffstutter
CHICAGO, March 11 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures ended lower on Tuesday for a third straight session, coming under pressure from hefty South American supplies hitting the global market and uncertainty over how U.S. tariffs will affect domestic demand, traders said.
Corn fell during a choppy trading session, after the federal government left domestic corn inventories unchanged in a monthly supply-and-demand report - despite strong export sales and trade tensions with top buyer Mexico.
Wheat futures ended lower after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported domestic and global wheat inventories were bigger than trade expectations.
The CBOT's most-active wheat closed down 5-3/4 cents at $5.56-3/4 a bushel. Corn ended down 1-3/4 cents at $4.70-1/4 a bushel, while soybeans settled down 2-3/4 cents at $10.11-1/4 per bushel.
Weakness in the canola market weighed on soyoil prices, which also carried over to pressure soybean futures, traders said.
Traders and farmers are keeping a close eye on exports, with U.S. tariff disputes with major buyers Mexico, Canada and China threatening sales of U.S. agricultural goods. They said USDA likely held off on changes as it waits to see whether the U.S. implements fresh tariffs and how trading partners respond.
Fears that U.S. tariffs will hurt economic growth have unsettled financial markets, while grain investors are wary that China may shun U.S. soybeans altogether in favor of a bumper Brazilian crop.
With the tariff war roiling between the U.S. and China, "the question is, where are we going to sell the (U.S.) beans? No one knows," said Jack Scoville, vice president at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
For corn futures, some analysts were baffled why USDA kept the U.S. corn export forecast unchanged, given the current pace of sales.
Over its mine life, the Marathon project is expected to produce 2.12moz of palladium and 517mlb of copper. Credit: Jose Luis Stephens/Shutterstock.
Generation Mining has secured the final construction permit from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) for its 100%-owned Marathon copper-palladium project in north-western Ontario, Canada.
The Ontario MNR granted all three outstanding approvals for infrastructure construction related to the water management structures at the project under the Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act.
Generation Mining president and CEO Jamie Levy said: “These further LRIA [Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act] approvals from the Government of Ontario demonstrate the continued advances we are making to bring the Marathon Project to fruition.
“We remain committed to working closely with all regulatory bodies to ensure the highest standards of environmental and social responsibility in the construction and operation of the Marathon Project. With just one outstanding approval to be obtained from the Government of Ontario, we are closer than ever to being fully permitted and ready for construction.”
The Marathon copper-palladium project is estimated to produce a total of 3.6 million ounces (moz) of palladium-equivalent over its existing 13-year mine life.
The project includes the construction, operation, decommissioning and remediation of three open pits to produce copper concentrate, consisting primarily of copper, palladium and platinum.
Other infrastructure includes an access road, a mine rock storage area, a 115kV transmission line, an onsite ore processing plant, a process solids management facility and a water management system.
The feasibility study projected a net present value of C$1.16bn ($805m), an internal rate of return of 25.8% and a 2.3-year payback.
Over its mine life, the project is expected to produce 2.12moz of palladium, 517 million pounds (mlb) of copper, 485,000oz of platinum, 158,000oz of gold and 3.15moz of silver in payable metals.
Generation Mining is working on securing an Environmental Compliance Approval – Industrial Sewage Works (ECA-ISW) for water discharge at the Marathon project site from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks.
Once this final provincial approval is secured, the Marathon project will have all essential permits for construction.
In 2023, Generation Mining signed an offtake term sheet with Glencore International to supply copper concentrate from its Marathon project.
Royalty hikes may put further pressure on mine operators as they contend with several policy changes impacting their finances. Credit: dba Duplessis/Shutterstock.
The Indonesian Mining Association (IMA) has urged the government to reconsider its plan to increase royalty rates for mining products as miners face rising operational costs and tight cash flows, reported Reuters.
Earlier this week, the Indonesian Government announced plans to increase royalties paid by mining companies to improve industry governance.
The focus is on commodities such as coal, nickel, copper, gold and tin, with potential implications for production and investment plans.
Indonesian Mining Association executive director Hendra Sinadia said that miners are already dealing with several policy changes impacting their finances.
These include the removal of subsidies on biodiesel for industrial use, a 6.5% hike in regional minimum wages and the mandatory use of a government-determined coal benchmark price for transactions.
“A royalty hike will increase the burden for the business community, and it can affect production and investment plans. We request that the government reconsider the plan to increase the tariffs, especially given state revenues from the mining sector have exceeded targets in recent years,” Sinadia added.
A recent policy requiring resource exporters to keep all proceeds onshore for a year is also expected to tighten cash flow, Hendra said.
Additionally, the report stated that some miners could be affected by Indonesia’s adoption of the global minimum tax this year, which could impact those previously benefitting from tax breaks on smelter investments.
Furthermore, nickel miners are facing declining prices, and coal miners have expressed concerns over the government’s price cap policy for the domestic market, which has not been reviewed for several years.
Maybank Securities Indonesia noted that companies such as Vale Indonesia, Bumi Resources Minerals, Aneka Tambang and Merdeka Copper Gold could see earnings decline if the proposal proceeds.
However, some holders of a special coal mining permit, such as Adaro Andalan Indonesia, might benefit from the proposed revision due to an overall reduction in maximum rates charged.
Other miners potentially affected by the proposal include Freeport-McMoRan’s Indonesian unit, Amman Mineral Internasional, and tin miner Timah.
https://www.mining-technology.com/news/indonesian-miners-government-review-royalty-hikes/
Global copper smelting fell for the first time in four months in February due to lower activity of plants outside the world’s top copper refiner China, data from satellite surveillance showed on Wednesday.
Earth-i, which specializes in observational data, tracks smelters representing up to 95% of global production for its SAVANT service and sells data to fund managers, traders and miners.
Last month, an average of 8.8% of global copper smelter capacity monitored was inactive, up from 8.6% in January, the company said in a statement. The change was driven mainly by Europe, Asia (excluding China) and Oceania.
“Nevertheless, smelting activity remains strong, defying prevailing market conditions for treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs),” Earth-i said.
Smelter inactivity in China, home to over 40% of capacity covered by its services, fell for the fourth consecutive month to 5.5%, the lowest since March 2023.
“While this is consistent with seasonal patterns and the uptick in economic activity that comes with the spring thaw in the northern hemisphere, it is remarkable given TC/RCs at record lows for the annual benchmark and spot market terms that are now widely marked in negative territory.”
Chinese copper smelters, which typically shut down for maintenance in April-May, have been hit by tight copper concentrate supply due to rising smelting capacity.
(By Polina Devitt; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
(Bloomberg) -- Trafigura Group-backed metals producer Nyrstar said it will cut around 25% of output at its zinc smelter in Australia, with a crunch in the supply of mined raw materials hurting profitability.
Nyrstar, which is one of the world’s biggest producers of zinc, said the cuts at its 280,000 ton per year Hobart smelter would start in April this year and remain in place until further notice.
“Nyrstar’s Australian assets continue to face significant financial challenges due to several external factors including worsening conditions in raw material markets, negative treatment charges, and increased costs,” the company said in a statement on its website.
In a sign of a supply shortfall relative to smelter demand, spot market deals for mined zinc concentrates have in recent months been done with treatment charges set at negative levels — meaning smelters have had to pay to process units.
Major smelters and mining companies are currently locked in talks over annual supply contracts, which represent the bulk of what they process over the course of the year. Annual treatment charges for non-Chinese smelters like Nyrstar are expected to drop from levels of $165 a ton — already a three year low.
Three-month zinc price futures on the London Metal Exchange rose to $2,950 a ton on the news — the highest since late January. Zinc prices also rose on Tuesday after 40,700 tons of zinc warrants were canceled from exchange warehouses in Asia.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nyrstar-cuts-australian-zinc-output-094433878.html
Demand gradually declines ahead of Holi
Supply-demand gap leads to uncertainty
Trade-level hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices showed mixed trends w-o-w, maintaining a range of INR 48,900-51,000/tonne (t) across India. However, cold-rolled coil (CRC) prices remained firm w-o-w, settling at INR 54,800-58,800/t across markets.
BigMint's benchmark assessment (bi-weekly) for HRCs (IS2062, Gr E250, 2.5-8 mm/CTL) increased by INR 600/t w-o-w to INR 49,600/t on 11 March 2025. Meanwhile, CRC (IS513, Gr O, 0.9 mm/CTL) prices remained stable w-o-w at INR 56,500/t. These prices are quoted ex-Mumbai for the distributor-to-dealer segment and exclude the 18% GST.
Market updates
Market uncertainty leads to mixed price trends: HRC prices showed mixed trends w-o-w, with some markets witnessing an increase, while tags fell or remained stable in others. Demand gradually dwindled ahead of Holi.
"The market is experiencing a supply and demand imbalance, resulting in price uncertainty. The delay in implementing the safeguard duty could cause price decreases following the Holi festival," said a market participant.
Import trends: India's bulk imports of HRCs and plates touched 114,530 t on 10 March 2025, according to vessel line-up data with BigMint. An additional 136,344 t are expected to arrive by the end of this month.
Export trends: BigMint's price index for Indian HRC (SAE1006) exports to the Middle East and Vietnam remained steady w-o-w. Recent export deals to the Middle East kept prices stable at $495/t (FOB main port, India). In Vietnam, buyers focused on domestic HRCs despite rising mill prices. Meanwhile, the European market remained slow due to ongoing anti-dumping investigations.
Outlook
Weak demand and supply-demand imbalances have caused price uncertainty. The delayed implementation of safeguard duties may lead to price declines after Holi. Overall, market sentiment will remain cautious in the near term.
