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Roskill Information Services is one of the world's leading providers of information on international metals and minerals markets.

Our market reports are widely regarded as essential reading for anyone who wants to gain a thorough knowledge of the supply, demand, end-use applications, trade and prices of over 50 metals and minerals, as well as informed forecasts of future trends.

New Reports

Magnesium Metal
China's domination of the world's magnesium industry continues to grow in both supply and demand. The closure of Norsk Magnesium's plant in Canada in 2006, followed several closures of plants in the West since 1998, leaving only six significant primary magnesium producers outside China, two of which produce for their own use. As a result, Chinese production accounted for 77% of global output of about 860kt in 2007.Virtually all new magnesium projects outside China investigated or implemented...

Feldspar
Consolidation of the industry over the past several years has increased concentration in the hands of a few large companies. Six companies produce over 1Mtpy compared to an industry average of less than 100,000tpy. The six largest producers are Gruppo Minerali (3.0Mtpy capacity mainly in Italy), Imerys (1.5Mtpy capacity mainly in France), Esan Eczacibasi Industrial Raw Minerals (1.2Mtpy), Cine Akmaden (1.4Mtpy), Kaltun (1.4Mtpy) and Unimin/Sibelco (1Mtpy capacity worldwide). Together they accoun...

Manganese
Most manganese, around 90% of global output, is used in the production of iron and steel, an application in which it is essential and where it has no real substitutes. Trends in consumption of manganese thus reflect those in the global steel industry and will continue to do so.Global steel production has been in a growth phase since the turn of the century and output rose by an average of about 6%py between 2000 and 2006. Steel demand has been forecast to increase by nearly 7%py in 2007/08 and...

Iron Ore
Over the last decade iron ore production has increased by 5.3%pa, but the main explosion in output has occurred since 2001 with an AAGR of 9.7%. Iron ore production exceeded 1,400Mt in 2006 with much of this total being consumed by the burgeoning steel industries in China, India, Russia and Ukraine. These economies are in a rapid industrialisation period where consumption of steel is driven by the need to build new infrastructure. In mature industrial economies the demand for steel grows at a mu...

Rare Earths and Yttrium
China, the dominant global supplier of rare earths, has put strict controls on its mining, production and export in order to maximise its own use of its resources. As a result, the past 3 years have brought fundamental change to the global industry, taking it from oversupply to demand shortages.During the 1990s and early 2000s, significant over-production and low prices led to most non-Chinese rare earth producers shutting down their operations. As a result, from 2004-2007 China has supplied 9...

Rhenium
Spot prices for rhenium doubled in 2006 and are now at a historic peak - the result of limited supplies and strong growth in demand from the aerospace sector. Over the last decade, the rise in output has not matched the strong growth in demand from 35,000kg to an estimated 65,000kg, which has come from the development of new superalloys containing rhenium for use in aircraft engines and ground-based gas turbines. The supply-demand balance is likely to tighten further, at least in the short te...

Silicon and Ferrosilicon
In 2007, the markets for silicon and ferrosilicon were enjoying an unprecedented rate of growth, due mainly to increased demand for silicones and solar cells in the case of silicon, and to rapid expansion in global steel making in the case of ferrosilicon. Although supplied to very different markets, the prices of silicon and ferrosilicon follow very similar trends because of the similarity in production processes, and the importance of the supply and cost of power in their production. With dema...