IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from March 14

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday March 14 that are worth another look.

Metal trading funds and the metal commodities industry in general are increasingly focused on trading copper spreads and staying away from bets on outright price, panelists at the International Copper Conference said on Wednesday March 13.

At Fastmarkets’ 20th Asian Ferro-alloys conference in Hong Kong this week, our team polled delegates about their expectations for the ferro-alloys markets for the remainder of the first half year of 2019.

Exchanges have an important role to play in the growing push for the use of Environmental, Social and Governance criteria in investing, the London Metal Exchange’s chief executive officer said.

South African state power utility Eskom has implemented load shedding for the first time this month amid lingering power constraints, sparking predictions of ferro-chrome price spikes if the situation deteriorates.

JFE Meranti is a newcomer to the coated steel coil sector, and it expects its first years to be challenging while it works to achieve the lion’s share of Myanmar’s up-and-coming market for coated steel products, chief executive and managing director Sebastian Langendorf has told Fastmarkets.

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.