IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from May 1

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday May 1 that are worth another look.

Evraz’s steel product output at its CIS-based assets surged by 9.3% year on year to 3.12 million tonnes in January-March 2020.

The sharp decline in emerging market currencies combined with a collapse in oil prices are providing a twin saving grace for many metals and mining companies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Freeport McMoRan will resume copper shipments from Peru this month, sources told Fastmarkets on May 1.

The Chinese domestic spot battery-grade lithium carbonate price fell by 1.1% on Thursday April 30 with buyers still reluctant to accept higher prices amid poor downstream consumption.

Outright cobalt hydroxide prices came under pressure in April with limited demand from end-users in Asia outweighing the impact of delays and supply uncertainty stemming from South Africa’s lockdown.

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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