WEEK-IN-BRIEF: Ebola in West Africa; Glencore output; the battle over Al spreads; TK Met’s US expansion

What has been going on in metal markets over the past week? A review from the Metal Bulletin team

What has been going on in metal markets over the past week? A review from the Metal Bulletin team

What effect has the Ebola virus had on West Africa’s mining sector? Metal Bulletin’s Andrea Hotter asked the companies that have operations there. Read the round-up here

Metal Bulletin recently looked at the state of the industry across all the mining countries of West Africa, where there is significant bauxite, iron ore and manganese ore production. Click here for Metal Bulletin’s Fast Facts Africa

Want a quick glance at Glencore’s production results, which were released on August 13? See them here

For a fuller picture of zinc, copper, ferro-chrome and nickel production, take a look here

Higher metal prices and sufficient supply of zinc concentrates for the moment have driven up treatment charges for zinc. Here are the details

The aluminium cash-to-three-months contango on the London Metal Exchange widened last week, before tightening again. Metal Bulletin’s Jethro Wookey reviewed the battle that is going on in the aluminium spread

The US Midwest premium, the European premium and the Japanese premium are the three most widely-watched benchmarks for the physical aluminium market outside the LME price.

Premiums in the USA moved up by 50-75 cents per lb last week, as the market remained flat at elevated levels in Japan and Brazil: sellers feel strong enough not to sell, and buyers do not need to add to contracted volumes – yet.

Check the latest reports from the USABrazil and Japan

Russian separatists seized Privat Group’s Stakhanov ferro-alloys plant earlier this month. Privat will increase ferro-silicon production at Zaporozhye to compensate for production lost at Stakhanov. Find out more here

ThyssenKrupp Metallurgical Products is adding a ferro-alloys trading desk to its operations in the USA. Metal Bulletin has all the details. 

A close reading of Umicore’s results a couple of weeks ago revealed a joint venture that the Belgium-based speciality product company had done with China-based Vital Materials.

What does the deal mean for the indium market inside and outside China? A briefing here

And find out more here about the production – and a ready buyer for it

The London Metal Exchange published its second commitment of traders report. In which market did money managers cut long positions by 12%? Check our take on the data here

editorial@metalbulletin.com

What to read next
The proposal would align the index more closely with physically traded volumes in the region, and enable it to adjust to evolving market conditions. This proposal follows an observed widening of the spread between trader and smelter purchase components of the index and is aligned with a majority of market feedback. Additionally, Fastmarkets seeks feedback […]
Until now, aluminium has been hard to move, not hard to find. Global aluminium supply had remained technically intact, even as output was curtailed in parts of the Gulf, inventory buffers were drawn down or repositioned, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was severely disrupted.
Global aluminium producers face heightened uncertainty over power supplies, with oil and gas prices elevated by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows, sources told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets is extending the consultation period for the methodology of several of its black mass payables indicators and prices, and is also proposing changes to the names of CIF South Korea and EWX Europe black mass prices.
Rio Tinto Aluminium is expanding its footprint beyond its historic hydro-powered Canadian base, targeting Europe, Asia and Latin America as part of a deliberate diversification strategy, according to the unit’s chief executive officer.
Fastmarkets has corrected its copper concentrates treatment and refinement charge indices, which were published incorrectly on March 20 2026 due to a technical error.