Here’s a quick review of the key developments, which also indicate our direction for 2019:
We consulted in detail with the industry to meet its requirements for greater transparency in volatile markets, enabling us to launch more than 20 new price series
We put 13 of our benchmark prices through an independent IOSCO assurance process to give those that use them even greater confidence in their representativeness, independence and robustness
We refined the specifications of scores of our prices, increasing the frequency at which we indexed or assessed many of them, enabling us to provide more continual coverage of key markets
We hired and trained more staff to enhance our price reporting and market coverage. We now have a pricing, editorial and research team that numbers more than 100 people worldwide to cover the metals and minerals markets
We rebranded our business to clarify what we do as a global team and provide a clearer experience for our customers in every part of the world
We worked closely with futures exchanges to list contracts against our benchmark prices to give more participants in the physical industry the capacity to hedge their price risk
We produced market reports that captured key developments in markets. To take a few examples from December alone:
We trimmed and rationalized to reduce the amount of non-core information that we published to focus on the markets and services that really matter
(In the context of rationalization, at the start of 2019 we plan to stop publishing the daily morning briefs and week-in-brief reports. These services were introduced some years ago to aggregate coverage for our subscribers but we think we will provide more value by investing that time instead in pricing and covering turbid markets)
Over the next year, our editors, analysts and reporters will continue with this strategy of working closely with the metals industry to launch, develop and refine the benchmarks and coverage that the market needs to price, market and purchase material.
But we are also on a technological journey, an early milestone of which is the Excel Add-in, which will enable you to integrate our prices into your Excel spreadsheets seamlessly. Much more of this will be seen in 2019 while we develop our customer platforms.
Fastmarkets exists to enable you to steer surely through whatever the markets bring over the next 12 months.
If you have any suggestions, comments or advice to help us in our objective, do not hesitate to contact me.
Alex Harrison
Editorial & pricing director
Cangzhou Steel Pipe Group (CSPG) Co., Ltd
Cangzhou Steel Pipe Group (CSPG) Co., Ltd. is a large-sized, key metallurgic enterprise of Hebei Province in North China, whose history dates back to 1994. CSPG currently em/paces six member companies with products varying from SSAW, LSAW, ERW, seamless steel pipes to 3PE pipes, galvanized pipes, casing pipes, etc. A Joint-stock corporation, CSPG occupies an area of 600,000 square meters with a total asset of $530 million.
Specialized in the production of straight welded pipe spiral pipe galvanized pipe 3PE/3PP/FBE/TPEP internal and external epoxy powder internal and external epoxy resin cement mortar two cloth three oil buried pipeline IPN8710 non-toxic drinking water internal and external plastic coated lining plastic and other anti-corrosion pipe fittings for oil and gas pipeline water conservancy projects
Executive standard :DIN30670 DIN30678 CSA Z245 AFNOR nf49-710/711 NACE rp0394/0490 AWWAC 210/C213GB/T9711 API 5L ISO 3183Material: Q235B/Q355BGR A GR B x42-x80 l245-l555
Business scope: 21.3mm-3620mmLSAW submerged arc welded pipe 325-2020mmERW straight welded pipe 6mm-711mmSMLS seamless tube 10-1120mmSSAW spiral steel tube 219-3620mmDemand for quality suppliers and partners