Trading activity in the Iranian export market for steel billet and slab slowed down in the week ended Wednesday January 15, with the United States tightening its sanctions against a number of the Middle Eastern country’s major steelmakers amid increased tension between the two nations.
Fresh off the delivery of its first commercial batch from the Alcoa-Rio Tinto joint-venture Elysis to Apple last month, Alcoa expects the market will soon create a separate premium for less-carbon intensive aluminium, but the producer believes the market is not ready just yet.
Copper production at the Deziwa copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has officially come online in January 2020, following successful trial operations in December 2019, sources told Fastmarkets this week.
A preliminary trade agreement between the United States and China has done little to change the outlook for industrial minerals and minor metals, with no sign of a reversal for tariffs on Chinese material and no firm commitments on Chinese purchases.
South32 reduced high-cost trucking of manganese ore at its South African operations in the three months to December 31, 2019, in response to lower manganese ore prices, the miner announced on January 16.
