IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from July 23

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday July 23 that are worth another look.

Russian producer UC Rusal has completed the installation of a new aluminium smelter with capacity for 120,000 tonnes per year at its Boguchansky plant at Krasnoyarsk in Russia, it said on Tuesday July 23.

Rising freight rates offset the benefit of a 3.5% increase in chrome ore prices in terms of producer sales in the week to Friday July 19, market sources told Fastmarkets.

Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte alumina refinery has reached 80-85% utilization after the Brazilian government lifted a production embargo against the facility in May.

The goal of Steel Dynamics Inc’s new $1.9-million electric-arc furnace flat-rolled steel mill, to be located in Sinton, Texas, is not to add more pressure to flat-rolled steel capacity in the United States. Rather, it aims to challenge foreign products in both the Gulf and West Coast regions in addition to domestic integrated steel models, the company’s top executive said.

Chinese domestic and export ferro-silicon prices jumped by around 5% week on week on July 17 due to improved demand and tight supply, while US market participants view the stabilizing European price as a sign that the country’s domestic market is close to a bottom.