IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from September 20

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday September 20 that are worth another look.

Uptrends in the spot aluminium premiums in Rotterdam have faltered with backwardations in the London Metal Exchange December/three-month and January/three-month spreads starting to put material pressure on the physical market.

Some large Chinese metal scrap buyers that have been granted import quotas have been reselling their permits to smaller companies since new import restriction came into place, Fastmarkets learned.

Spot prices for lithium in China moved down this week due to lower prices amid ample supply, while the seaborne Asian lithium market also declined with increasingly lower prices reported.

The recent sharp increase in the London Metal Exchange three-month nickel price is justified by long-term electric vehicle (EVs) demand for the metal even if it is driven by the stainless steel sector in the short term, Nornickel’s head of commodity research said at the 18th International Stainless and Special Steel Summit in Seville, Spain, on Wednesday September 18.

Questions about the fate of stocks held by the defunct Fanya Metal Exchange have been a weight on negotiations in many minor metals markets since the bourse collapsed in 2015, and have contributed to the uncertainty that has stifled trade for much of 2019.