IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from October 4

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday October 4 that are worth another look.

Flat steel import prices were caught once again in the continuous global downtrend during the past week, as market participants await for Chinese offers to resume after the Golden Week and material from other origins was sold at lower levels.

It has been a hectic couple of years for LME chief executive officer Matthew Chamberlain, his teams and members while the exchange works through the comprehensive list of plans and actions in its Strategic Pathway.

Chinese spot copper premiums hit 10-month highs in September, but market participants doubt the uptrend can last and expect a drop in the annual benchmark premium for 2020.

Low refined nickel stocks and a looming ban on exports of nickel ore from Indonesia are two factors creating a bullish nickel market, according to participants at the seventh Asian Nickel Conference held in Jakarta in mid-September.

Canadian mining company Strongbow’s investment in the South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall – an internationally famous tin mine in the south-west of England, with a long heritage – is for the long term, reports Hassan Butt.

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The influential annual treatment and refining charge (TC/RC) benchmark that sets the price that smelters charge miners to process their copper concentrate could be at risk, according to multiple market sources, although most believe the system, or elements of it, will remain
Fastmarkets' initial low-carbon premium for nickel briquettes captured existing regional price differences, with growing awareness and legislative incentives indicating there is potential for a strong market to emerge
The Chilean government is pushing ahead with plans for a new copper smelter despite the global smelting crisis, Chile’s minister of mining, Aurora Williams told Fastmarkets, adding that the state will also play a key role in developing the country’s premium lithium assets
Just under two weeks ago, the chair of BHP made a phone call to his counterpart at mining peer Anglo American and set in motion a flurry of activity designed to create the largest copper producer in the world
Brazilian aluminium supply coming from Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio (CBA) is said to have tightened, helping to boost the P1020A ingot premium, market participants told Fastmarkets in the two weeks to Wednesday April 24
In anticipation of a tight market, copper concentrate traders have locked in 2025 volumes at notably low treatment charges, with deals being placed well below the long-term industry benchmarks