The headline of the week ending 30 August did not come from an exchange screen. On 28 August, Iran and Oman unveiled a temporary framework for the Strait of Hormuz — a designated corridor and joint mine-clearing effort — the first structural attempt to restore transits that had collapsed to roughly 5 vessels a day in late July, against a pre-crisis norm of 95–138. Nothing has normalised yet, but for the first time this quarter the direction of travel on freight is downward rather than upward. Everything below should be read against that backdrop.
Week at a glance
| Group | Net move on the week | Read | Catalogue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steel & iron ore | Flat to firmer | Turkish rebar held its US$575–585/t FOB band; 62% Fe steady near US$97/t CFR; Russian HRC edged up | Steel Products |
| Billet & semi-finished | Mixed | CIS billet softened toward US$465–470/t FOB while Chinese billet firmed — a widening arbitrage | Semi-Finished |
| Copper, aluminium, zinc | Elevated | Copper still historically high after January's record; zinc rangebound on balanced fundamentals | Non-Ferrous |
| Industrial minerals | Steady, supply-sensitive | GCC cement demand ~116 Mt in 2026; barite tightly coupled to drilling activity | Minerals |
| Petrochemicals | Urea softer, sulphur extreme | Urea eased over the month on relaxed Chinese export rules; sulphur still up sharply year-on-year | Petrochemicals |
| Polymers (PE/PP/PVC) | Firm | Packaging grades pushed higher again in August on Hormuz-driven feedstock tightness | Polymers |
Steel and iron ore: a quiet, orderly week
Ferrous was the calmest corner of the complex. Turkish rebar was reported at roughly US$575–585 per tonne FOB and unchanged week-on-week, with CIS-origin material around US$550–560/t FOB, according to the Arab Iron and Steel Union's weekly assessment. Wire rod in Turkey held around US$580–585/t FOB. On the raw-material side, 62% Fe Australian fines sat near US$97/t CFR, essentially flat after a modest gain the prior week — a level that keeps mill margins workable without inviting restocking.
The more interesting move was in semi-finished: Russian billet slipped around US$5/t to the US$465–470/t FOB area while Chinese billet firmed to roughly US$455/t FOB. That convergence narrows the traditional CIS discount and, for re-rollers, changes which origin makes sense on a landed basis. Buyers running Q4 rebar and section programmes should be re-running landed-cost comparisons rather than defaulting to last quarter's origin. Current grades and standards are listed on our Steel Products page, part of the Industrial Products & Commodities sector.
Non-ferrous: high, but no longer headline-making
Copper spent the week consolidating rather than breaking new ground. The market is still trading far above its multi-year averages after the LME cash price set an all-time high of roughly US$13,270 per tonne in early January, and Fastmarkets has revised its 2026 base-case average upward to about US$10,943/t. Aluminium, for its part, has still not revisited the ~US$4,000/t peak of the 2022 energy shock, and zinc remains, in Fastmarkets' phrasing, tethered to balanced fundamentals and cautious sentiment.
For cathode, billet, ingot and wire-rod buyers the practical message is unchanged: this is a market to cover in tranches, not to time. Specifications are on our Non-Ferrous Metals catalogue.
Industrial minerals: demand is regional, supply is the variable
Minerals had no dramatic price story this week, but two structural datapoints matter. GCC cement consumption is running at roughly 116 million tonnes in 2026, carried by Saudi and UAE mega-projects, which underpins steady clinker and aggregate offtake across the region. Meanwhile Metal Tech News reported that declining domestic US barite production is pushing import reliance higher, leaving the barite market unusually supply-sensitive through the rest of 2026 — a dynamic the GCC, with its own heavy drilling programme, feels directly.
For drilling-grade barite and bentonite, specification consistency matters more than headline price when supply is thin; that is a quality-assurance question as much as a procurement one. Grades are listed on our Industrial Minerals page, part of Mining, Minerals & Natural Stone.
Petrochemicals: urea down, sulphur still extraordinary
Urea was the week's clearest softener, quoted around US$420/t on 27 August and down roughly 3.5% over the month, with China's relaxation of export restrictions adding supply to the seaborne market. Sulphur went the other way in structural terms: prices eased marginally on the week but held a monthly gain and remain up dramatically year-on-year, with Russia's export ban running through the end of 2026. Methanol was quietly firmer, up around 12% year-on-year.
Buyer note: urea and sulphur are moving on opposite drivers — one on restored supply, the other on a policy-driven shortage. Treating them as a single "petrochemical" exposure in a Q4 budget will misprice both. Product-by-product cover is on our Petrochemicals & Chemicals page.
Polymers: the Hormuz premium is still in the price
Packaging polymers rose again through August as renewed Hormuz disruption tightened feedstock supply, lifting HDPE, LDPE and PP and squeezing converter margins. South Asian assessments in mid-August had HDPE film and blow grades around US$1,280/t, HDPE injection near US$1,270/t and PP film up US$5 at about US$1,265/t. The structural reason is stark: roughly 84% of Middle East PE capacity depends on the Strait, and about 80% of Asia's seaborne naphtha demand has been Middle East-supplied.
If the Iran–Oman corridor framework holds, that premium should begin to deflate — but slowly, and from a high base. Converters who deferred cover through August now face a genuine judgement call rather than a one-way market. Resin options are on our Plastics & Polymers page.
The week's biggest movers
Hormuz corridor framework
The 28 August Iran–Oman announcement is the single most consequential development for landed costs across every group above.
Container freight, Asia–Gulf
Shenzhen–Jebel Ali all-in quotes reported at US$8,250–9,500 per 40ft, up 35–55% on July, with a four-layer surcharge stack.
Sulphur
Marginally softer on the week but still up extraordinarily year-on-year on the Russian export ban — the complex's most dislocated price.
CIS billet
Down around US$5/t FOB while Chinese billet firmed, narrowing an origin spread that many re-rollers still budget as fixed.
Week ahead: what we are watching
Three things will shape the first week of September. First, whether the Hormuz corridor actually raises daily transit counts — the vessel numbers, not the announcement, are the signal, and carriers are unlikely to withdraw war-risk and emergency surcharges before transits are demonstrably routine. Second, September restocking in Chinese ferrous, which will decide whether iron ore's US$97/t footing holds. Third, whether relaxed Chinese urea exports keep flowing at pace or prove a short window.
Freight remains the swing factor in every landed price on this page; our supply chain and logistics team is routing around the constraint rather than waiting it out, and our global sourcing desk can structure multi-origin cover where a single lane looks fragile. Request a quote and we will come back with firm, specification-level pricing.
Sources: Arab Iron and Steel Union (rebar, wire rod, billet, iron ore); Fastmarkets base metals update; Metal Tech News (barite); Future Market Insights (GCC cement); Trading Economics (urea, methanol); ChemAnalyst and Polymerupdate (polymers); Sea Vantage and Freightos (Hormuz transits and freight). Figures are indicative market levels for the week ending 30 August 2026, reproduced from the cited publications for general information only. This is not trading, investment or procurement advice.