The Covid-19 pandemic could nudge Chinese steelmakers toward using more electric-arc furnaces (EAF) to produce steel, market sources say.
Aluminium stocks on the London Metal Exchange continue to rise and there is now a lack of warehouse space in key Asia locations in a situation that mirrors issues during the 2008 financial crash, sources told Fastmarkets.
More than 100,000 lots of Comex copper futures traded on Tuesday April 21, pushing the May-July spread into a super contango – with prices for future delivery well above spot levels.
The European charge and high carbon ferro-chrome benchmark has jumped by 13 cents, or 12.9%, to $1.14 per lb for the second quarter of 2020.
Five suspects were arrested and 250 tonnes of antimony ingot seized in the latest crackdown on antimony smuggling led by China’s Changsha Customs, the country’s General Administration of Customs said on its website on April 17.
