IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from March 18

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday March 18 that are worth another look.

Bulk alloy suppliers are reporting increased prompt demand from British consumers amid concerns about potential supply disruptions when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union.

A preliminary decision from a court in Brazil’s Itabira city, in the country’s southeastern Minas Gerais state, has ordered Vale to suspend activities at two of its tailings dams following a request from the Minas Gerais state prosecutors’ office, MPMG.

Growing fears of a bauxite supply disruption are putting alumina traders on alert for a potential price increase, sources have told Fastmarkets.

Treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for spot copper concentrates dropped sharply in early March, with Chinese smelters entering the market in earnest for units while a lack of supply from the blockaded Las Bambas mine in Peru has also prompted spot buying.

Revenue garnered from the United States’ Section 232 tariffs – in place for almost a year – stood at $4.3 billion for steel and $1.4 billion for aluminium as of Thursday February 21, 2019, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection. But there are some ways that companies can better manage trade under Section 232, sources told Fastmarkets AMM.

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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.