IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from January 28

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday January 28 that are worth another look.

Brazilian authorities and regulators are targeting Vale after the failure of the tailings dam at the global miner’s Córrego do Feijão mine, at Brumadinho in the country’s southeastern Minas Gerais state. The iron ore miner had 11 billion Reais ($2.91 billion) blocked by local judges following the rupture and flood at the tailings dam, with the company already subject to fines of up to 349 million Reais.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ordered Ausurus Group and its subsidiary European Metal Recycling (EMR) to pay penalties amounting to £300,000 for failing to comply with an enforcement order in relation to the scrap company’s takeover of domestic rival Metal Waste Recycling in 2017.

The aluminium market mainly shrugged off the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) long-awaited decision to remove sanctions imposed on Russian aluminium producer UC Rusal.

Following the OFAC’s decision, the London Metal Exchange’s Special Committee removed the “temporary conditional suspension” on Rusal metal, allowing the warranting of all material dated before and after April 6, 2018, to resume, it said in a note to members on Monday January 28.

China’s Hebei Iron & Steel will acquire Tata Steel’s operations in Southeast Asia, increasing its footprint in the region.