Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

Zinc the metal for 2006

Chops thanks did a search on Platinum and came up with nothing yesterday,did the same today and found it.Anyone got opinions as to whether platinum will go the same way as other commodities in short supply
 
alankew said:
Chops thanks did a search on Platinum and came up with nothing yesterday,did the same today and found it.Anyone got opinions as to whether platinum will go the same way as other commodities in short supply
It looks like the Platinum demand will outstrip supply next year. By about 20,000 ounces, I'm led to believe. I don't think the Platinum price will go up a huge amount, because the cheaper Palladium can be substituted in a lot of uses. That's what they did when a similar thing happened in 2001. It is also my tip for the metal of next year, Palladium that is.

In terms of the stocks, it doesn't really effect them either way the purchasers go, because Platinum producers also produce the cheaper Palladium. So yeah, that's a pretty basic look at it I guess.
 
Zinc and Nickel inventory levels up:

Aluminum 683925 +600
Copper 157725 +850
Nickel 6942 +588
Lead 44800 +450
Zinc 87650 +100

What the?
 
Simple. Higher prices curtail demand. Laws of economics. But its even 2 early to say that, its only 1 day.
 
I looked at kitcometals.com this morning and noticed that mostly metals price were down.
I then received the following news letter which states that they went up . Who to believe and where to find an accurate LME metals price:

MORNING MARKET REPORT BY Alan Kohler
November 28 2006

Market Summary
Index Last (+/-) Change
Dow Jones 12,121.79 - 158.79 1.29%
NASDAQ 2,405.92 - 54.34 2.21%
S&P 500 1,381.96 - 18.99 1.36%
DAX 6,298.17 - 113.79 1.77%
FTSE 100 6,050.10 - 72.00 1.18%


The decline of the US dollar has finally had a sizeable impact on the stockmarket. It fell to a new 20-month low versus the Euro on Monday, combining with disappointing sales forecasts from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and rising crude oil prices to drive out the buyers from stocks and send the main market indices tumbling. Fears of possible diversification of dollar reserves by Asian central banks and concerns that the Euro zone's interest-rate outlook is more favorable than that in the United States helped the Euro stay above the US$1.30 level.

And the Europeans are starting to worry about the inexorable rise of the Euro: French Finance Minister Thierry Breton urging vigilance on the dollar's decline, adding it will come up for discussion at a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels. OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria also voiced some concerns, saying that the Euro's strength posed productivity and competition risks for Europe.
Nick Bennenbroek, currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman told Reuters: "Market sentiment is bearish on the dollar. Part of that is growing expectations for US rate cuts."

The Euro was up 0.2% on the day at US$1.3119, after jumping to a 20-month high of US$1.3172, according to Reuters data. Late Friday in New York, the euro was at US$1.3090. The weak dollar helped push US crude oil futures higher, adding to pressure on the stock market from Wal-Mart's disappointing sales forecast over the weekend and a report in weekly financial newspaper Barron's that Google was overvalued. The poor sales forecast for Wal-Mart has raised doubts about a much-hyped increase in US consumers' holiday spending. Wal-Mart's stock was down 2.2 percent at US$46.86.

The Dow Jones average fell 1.3%, the S&P 500 1.4% and the NASDAQ 2.2%. European shares fell to five-week lows, as the Euro’s strength weighed on export-reliant companies such as car makers. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 1.52% to 1,429.00, its lowest level since October 18.

In London base metals prices generally rose. Nickel jumped 6.3%, copper was up 1.5%, zinc 2.4%, and the LME index went up 3.5%. Talking about nickel, one analyst in London told Reuters: "The supply and demand fundamentals are still very tight - especially stockpiles against usage ratios everywhere in the world. Crude oil futures rose were boosted by OPEC talk of additional production cuts. The oil market was also playing catch-up after the Thanksgiving holidays, dealers said. Addison Armstrong, analyst at TFS Energy, said in a research note: "The oil markets are also being supported by a sharply weaker dollar, which makes dollar-denominated oil cheaper in euros and yen". The price of West Texas intermediate crude went up US$1.95 to US$59.88, a rise of 3.4%.

On Comex, gold for December delivery was up US$11.60 at US$640.50 an ounce, buoyed by higher oil prices and the dollar's weakness. Spot gold prices hit a three-month high of US$641.75 an ounce, before easing back slightly to around US$639.40.
 
(Urgent) Questions for "the night shift" (if they're still up)...
I dont see much reaction to Wall Street's 2% drop in here (whether commodities/resources or just general?). Can we expect a severe drop this morning (20 minutes?) - good time to place stops?

Next question - when to buy back in? this afternoon?

Ahhh these an other questions will be known to all - by Xmas lol.
 
well metal prices arent that far off the pace, they have come back a bit but zinc is still holding 2.00 and copper has bounced back from the 3.00 mark last week or so.

copper held much stronger than anticipated with supply concerns, which helped push the zinc price back over 2.00 mark.

we prob will see weakness in resources but the spot prices are still very high with zinc near record levels.
 
stoxclimber said:
Is anyone else concerned about a) the steady ins in Singapore and b) the drop off in cancellations?
Yeah, I noticed that a while back. But what has happened is that they have begun to use Cobalt based products as a replacement, or so I can gather. Until the Cobalt prices peak, zinc might stagnate a bit. Any other opinions?
 
stoxclimber said:
Is anyone else concerned about a) the steady ins in Singapore and b) the drop off in cancellations?

what do u define as "steady"? once a week? once a month? how many tonnnes per week/month?

thx

MS
 
By steady I mean that over the recent couple of months there have been almost 0 ins for zinc, and now in Singapore we've seen them for about a week straight. Been about 4000 tonnes this week, 3000 in one day. Plus the cancellations haven't been very strong - now only about 7k tonnes cancelled.
 
chops
Cobalt is over $30/lb and zinc is $2/lb.
I am confused as to why cobalt is being used instead of zinc, so your help will be appreciated.
 
rederob said:
chops
Cobalt is over $30/lb and zinc is $2/lb.
I am confused as to why cobalt is being used instead of zinc, so your help will be appreciated.
Because Cobalt based paint is the alternative to galvanisation by and large. I am also led to believe by an industrial chemist, that even a small amount of cobalt added into alloys, can reduce corrosion substantially.

I guess it depends on how much people think they can save by using these methods, rather than the preferred zinc.
 
chops_a_must said:
Because Cobalt based paint is the alternative to galvanisation by and large. I am also led to believe by an industrial chemist, that even a small amount of cobalt added into alloys, can reduce corrosion substantially.

I guess it depends on how much people think they can save by using these methods, rather than the preferred zinc.

Well it appears right now that cobalt prices have exploded and demand for this metal is greater than zinc.It seems some people cannot book any material for next year.

Forget about zinc,does anyone know any pure cobalt plays?
 
specman said:
Well it appears right now that cobalt prices have exploded and demand for this metal is greater than zinc.It seems some people cannot book any material for next year.

Forget about zinc,does anyone know any pure cobalt plays?
There are no cobalt pure plays that I know of. I think it's found in other ore bodies. CMR look like they have a bit though.

EDIT: Yes, it is found within other ore bodies:

"Cobalt is not found as a free metal and is generally found in the form of ores. Cobalt is usually not mined alone, and tends to be produced as a by-product of nickel and copper mining activities."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt#Occurrence
 
stoxclimber said:
By steady I mean that over the recent couple of months there have been almost 0 ins for zinc, and now in Singapore we've seen them for about a week straight. Been about 4000 tonnes this week, 3000 in one day. Plus the cancellations haven't been very strong - now only about 7k tonnes cancelled.

yeah a few one-off "ins", its happened through the year

when did you first follow LME "ins'

thx

MS
 
Ease in drawdowns and cancellation activity is mainly because of American iron and steel institute reporting low steel production in the US for oct nov and metal being suddenly available in the US - couple that with thanksgiving holidays and producers destocking metal in the light of high zinc prices and consumers holding off purchases expecting the prices to come down ahead of the holiday season.

The auto industry will suddenly steam up in the few weeks and will start to order steel from mills. Mills will be caught short of zinc as a result of destocking of material and their inventories will be quite low. With no new supply coming up on stream in 2007 and low LME stocks, will trigger another bull run for zinc.
 
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