IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from December 2

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday December 2 that are worth another look.

United States President Donald Trump has imposed new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Brazil and Argentina, he said on social media platform Twitter on December 2.

A major Japanese steel mill plans to raise its hot-rolled coil offers to Asian buyers by $50 per tonne on a cfr basis for January-shipment materials.

Spot copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) increased at the end of November, with the market busy discussing annual contracts and deals.

Chinese vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) prices have resumed their decline as sentiment deteriorated on falling downstream vanadium nitrogen tender prices from major steel mills, while in Europe the price range widened upwards on increased spot activity.

Belgian battery-materials manufacturer Umicore has completed its purchase of cobalt refining and cathode precursor activities in Kokkola, Finland from Freeport Cobalt for $203 million.

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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.