Swiss trading house Trafigura has begun blending copper concentrates in Malaysia, with small batches of output being offered to the market, Fastmarkets has learned.
Zinc premiums in the United States widened upward in the week to Tuesday August 20 despite dampened consumption from steel mills, while lead premiums dropped in India and Southeast Asia, unaffected by Nystar’s Port Pirie outage.
The offtake agreement that sees Glencore market the vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) produced by Largo Resources in Brazil will not be renewed when it expires on April 30, 2020, the latter said late on August 20.
Turkey’s steel end-product consumption totaled 12.3 million tonnes in January-June 2019, down by 32.3% compared with the same period 2018, according to the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TÇÜD).
Nickel premiums in China fell due to a widened arbitrage loss in the week to August 20, while nickel premiums in Europe and the United States held steady during the quiet summer period despite a tightening forward curve and London Metal Exchange price volatility.
