IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from September 4

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday September 4 that are worth another look.

A sustained weakness in the United States’ Midwest aluminium premium and increased barge freight rates pushed the estimated arbitrage between Southeast Asian warehouses and the United States to an 18-month low.

Zinc premiums in Northern Europe have risen with falling zinc prices, while spreads on the London Metal Exchange went into backwardation. Meanwhile, lead premiums were broadly flat with many market participants attending an industry conference.

Atlantic Copper, Europe’s third largest copper smelter and refinery, has delayed intake of copper concentrates for up to two weeks, with primary smelting reduced to 40% capacity after an outage at its electric furnace, sources at the company told Fastmarkets.

After a period of correction that lasted for about three weeks, the price for Chinese cobalt metal has been given fresh strength by rising raw materials costs and tightened spot supply.

Flat steel producer ArcelorMittal Italia will “continue operations beyond” September 6 at its plant in Taranto, Italy, despite the country’s adoption of the so-called Crescita Decree law, the company said on September 4.

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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.