IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from June 7

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday June 7 that are worth another look.

The outlook for continuing Chinese demand for copper scrap from the United States, especially No2 copper (birch/cliff), is cautiously optimistic among market participants.

In base metals, the ongoing trade war between the US and China is dampening investor interest in the primary copper industry, executives said at Fastmarkets’ 5th Annual Copper Seminar on Wednesday June 5 in New York. Additionally, disappointing US job growth figures hung over the commodity markets and sent the three-month lead price on the London Metal Exchange lower at the close of trading on June 7, with the metal failing to sustain gains made earlier in the week but staying above its nearby $1,800-per-tonne support level.

A customer of Konkola Copper Mines has been informed that it will not be receiving copper deliveries in June after the Zambian government’s recent liquidation order on the supplier.

Fastmarkets examines the disconnect between manganese ore and alloy prices, which has led to squeezed margins for alloy producers.

Cobalt prices have continued to slide amid weak buying activity.

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.