Metal prices

Metal prices (metal commodities) are only for a few metals quoted on exchanges. Only Aluminium Alloy, Aluminium, Copper, Lead, Nickel, Tin, Zinc and Nasaac (North American special Aluminium alloy) are exchange traded commodities. Other metals (like Bismuth, Selenium, Tellurium and many others) are traded on market demand and the buyers/sellers themselves set the price.

The London Metal Exchange which trades the commodities mentioned above is planning to add trading contracts for Cobalt and Molybdenum in the course of 2009/2010.

Contracts traded on metal exchanges are also called futures contracts.

Pricing providers

There are companies like Asian Metal,Metal-Pages, Metal Bulletin and Reuters that provide a pricing service. They set the price by talking to producers, traders and consumers. These prices are more an indication then an actual exchange price.

Unlike the prices on an exchange pricing providers tend to give a weekly or bi-weekly price. For each commodity they quote a range (low and high price) which reflect the buying and selling range.

Metal commodities

The commodities quoted have a specific grade and quality of the forms in which they are most often traded.

An example:

Commodity	Cobalt
Traded forms	Cobalt min 99.3% Russian Cobalt min 99.8% - aerospace application

Cobalt is an important export product of Russia and therefor the Russian quality is often traded. Another form of Cobalt crucial to the aerospace industry is a high grade form of Cobalt with 99.8% purity.

External links

• Metal prices, news and information
• Current steel prices and price charts