ASIAN MORNING BRIEF 02/10: LME base metals prices mixed; Q4 MJP aluminium premium established; Three Castleton Commodities traders to join Mercuria

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Tuesday October 2.

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mixed at the close of trading on Monday October 1 after some forecast-missing economic data from China. Read more in our live futures report.

Here are how prices looked at the close of trading:

Premiums for the supply of aluminium to main Japanese ports (MJP) in the fourth quarter of 2018 have settled at $103 per tonne over the LME cash price, sources directly involved in the negotiations disclosed to Fastmarkets MB.

Three base metals traders at Castleton Commodities International (CCI) will leave to join Mercuria and build up the company’s global aluminium, copper and zinc books, Fastmarkets learned on October 1.

Chinese lithium producer Ganfeng Lithium announced on September 28 that it reached a strategic cooperation agreement with BMW to supply the German automaker with lithium compounds.

Fastmarkets MB will not publish price assessments for steel products in China from October 1-5, 2018, due to the week-long National Day holidays.

Turkey exported 356,568 tonnes of flat steel products in August, the latest figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute show.

Radoslaw Zalozinski has left his position as an executive director at Polish copper producer KGHM after 19 years with the group, Fastmarkets learned on October 1.

The European Commission has begun an anti-dumping investigation into imported steel welded tubes, pipes and hollow profiles of square or rectangular cross-section originating from Macedonia, Russia and Turkey.

What to read next
The most recent financial results published by base metals mining companies highlight just how inflation is affecting profit margins, with increasing wages, financing costs and input prices all hitting profits, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday March 28
Century Aluminum is among those selected to start award negotiations for up to $500 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding to build a new aluminium smelter, the company said on Monday March 25
Participants in the copper concentrates market are struggling to comprehend an “unstoppable” decline in treatment and refinement charges (TC/RCs), with every week bringing spot deals at fresh lows and rumors each “crazier” than the last, sources have told Fastmarkets
The US Department of Energy selected five base metals projects to receive more than $900 million in federal investment from its Industrial Demonstration Program (IDP), leading to a reduction of four million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to a statement by the Department on Monday March 25
Aluminium producer and recycler Constellium announced on Tuesday March 12 that the company is moving to test hydrogen utilization at an industrial scale as a power source in its casthouses
Fastmarkets has corrected its MB-ALU-0002 alumina index, fob Australia and its MB-ALU-0010 alumina inferred index, fob Brazil, which were published incorrectly on Monday March 18.