IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from February 7

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday February 7 that are worth another look.

Prices in Southeast Asia’s steel billet market have tumbled last week amid speculation that Chinese billet importers could annul contracts on the grounds of virus-related force majeure.

China has halved tariffs on a slew of US-sourced metals and minerals including copper cathodes and rare earths.

Nickel and cobalt producer Ramu NiCo, owned by state-owned Metallurgical Corporation of China, has been sued for $5.4 billion for environmental failures, the latest in a long line of environmental woes to befall the Papua New Guinea operation.

Zinc’s benchmark cash/three-month spread on the London Metal Exchange has moved into contango for the first time in five months after the largest inflow since last April brought on-warrant material to more than 50,000 tonnes.

The coronavirus outbreak in China has severely disrupted logistics in the country, creating a shortage of available truck drivers and rail freight cars, with transport between provinces severely disrupted.

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The United States' copper recycling industry is ramping up pressure on policymakers to impose some form of export controls on high-purity copper scrap, arguing that current trade dynamics – particularly with China – are distorting prices, weakening domestic capacity and undermining national security goals.
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US copper scrap market participants are shifting from COMEX to LME pricing in response to extreme price volatility and a new 50% copper import tariff. The change is influencing discount formulas, export strategies and long-term trading dynamics across the sector.