Ferrous metals
 

Ferrous metals


Fundamentals

Less developed than base metals, due to the long lasting oligopoly of iron ore miners and integrated steel production conglomerates, the ferrous metals market is evolving rapidly. A range of markers are now published by price reporting agencies and various liquid future and option contracts are listed on different exchanges.

Production and consumption data can be found in the statistical figures released by:


Metals statistics
Issuer Site
UN Comtrade United Nations - Global trade data
USGS US Government - US Geological Survey, Minerals
Standards development organizations
Standards Useful sites
Country Organization
International ISO Arcelor Mittal
Outokumpu
Platts steel
SSINA
Steel number
Make it from
Japan JIS
China SAC, GB
India BIS
Russia GOST
European Union CEN
Great Britain BS
United States AISI
ASTM
SAE
Brazil ABNT
Argentina IAS
Recycling industry associations
Organization Standards
Japan Ferrous Raw Materials Association Tetsugen Uniform Standards of Ferrous Scraps
European Recycling Industries Confederation EuRIC EU-27 Steel Scrap Specification (EFR)
British Metals Recycling Association BMRA
Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries ISRI Scrap Specifications Circular

Platt's and TSI

Platt's now manages both it's own IODEX index as well as those previously released by The Steel Index (TSI). Those are close, but distinct regarding following characteristics:

Iron ore, IODEX and TSI
IODEX TSI
Publisher Platt's The Steel Index
Assessment Reporting data gathered in the market for a normalized standard, during a specific time window (MOC). Transaction data provided by market participants, then normalized to generate a volume weighted average.
Series Bid, Ask, Midpoint Single price
Quality Fe 62%, Up to 3.5% Alumina Fe 62%, Maximum 2% Alumina
Location Tianjin Qingdao