IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from July 1

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday July 1 that are worth another look.

Nickel’s three-month price on the London Metal Exchange fell at the close of trading on Monday July 1, failing to sustain recent gains while poor data from China’s manufacturing sector damped buying sentiment.

Vanadium producer Largo Resources “has adopted the conservative strategy” of not returning capital to shareholders “at this time” against a backdrop of lower vanadium prices, it said in the week ended June 28.

The Chinese domestic antimony price was steady for a fourth consecutive week on Friday, reflecting thin spot business. But the price could dip because some Chinese antimony suppliers have shown a willingness to lower offer prices to encourage sales in an effort to destock and generate cash flow.

Transamine has made several new hires, including Scott Roos and Gabriel Rubin to senior trading positions, it said. Roos, who traded copper at Glencore after spending 25 years managing commercial operations at Noranda, will be Transamine’s Canadian representative and will lead its North American business. Rubin will head the Swiss trader’s lead and zinc book.

ArcelorMittal finalized the sale of a number of its European steel assets to Liberty House Group on June 30, the world’s biggest steelmaker said on July 1.

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.