IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from June 8

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday June 8 that are worth another look.

Workers at Italian flat steel producer ArcelorMittal Italia will go on strike on Tuesday June 9 to protest job cuts, presented as part of new industrial plan, Italian trade unions Fim, Fiom and Uilm said on June 6.

The main workers’ union representing employees of Cobre Panamá, Utramipa, is pressuring Panamanian authorities to reopen the largest copper mine in Central America as soon as possible due to the suspension of labor contracts in late April, Fastmarkets heard.

The market for high-carbon ferro-chrome in Europe ticked up in the week to Friday June 5 with some producers holding out for higher prices in the face of weak demand.

Seaborne prices for both low and high-grade manganese ore in China tumbled to seven-week lows in the week to June 5 after some miners reduced offer prices for July-delivery cargoes significantly amid a bearish sentiment prevailing in the domestic market, sources said.

Spot cobalt hydroxide payables came off their recent highs during the second half of last week with consumers having completed the bulk of their recent restocking drive.

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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