IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from March 26

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday March 26 that are worth another look.

The London Metal Exchange has announced a six-month suspension of listing fees for new cobalt brands on the exchange in a note to members on Tuesday March 26 amid emerging liquidity concerns from producers.

There are no concerns surrounding the availability of bauxite to meet ongoing aluminium supply chain growth, industry executives said at Fastmarkets’ 25th Bauxite & Alumina conference in Miami on March 26, noting that the key to ensuring access to it is improving community and government relationships. Additionally, new regulation to decommission upstream tailings dams in Brazil is necessary to ensure the safety of the community but should not reduce bauxite production, Milton Rego, deputy president of Brazilian Aluminium Association Abal, said at the same conference. 

MMG will declare force majeure on copper concentrate sales contracts from the Las Bambas mine in Peru, the mining company said on Tuesday in a notice to the Hong Kong Exchange. 

Most of Norsk Hydro’s operations are now running at normal capacity one week after the company was hit by a cyber attack, the Norwegian aluminium producer said on March 26.

Physical iron ore prices stayed rangebound for a second day on March 26, with market participants waiting on news of the full impact of Cyclone Veronica on Australian iron ore operations.

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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.
The publication of Fastmarkets’ US base metals prices were published early during the week of March 11-15 following the daylight saving time change in the US on March 10.