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

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday December 5 that are worth another look.

Chinese stainless steel prices in both the domestic and export markets fell over the past week amid bearish sentiment stemming from the high inventories held at a major mill in eastern China.

More of the world’s copper looks likely to be priced in China from next year, with the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) set to launch a new contract tradable by international market participants.

Elysis, the Alcoa-Rio Tinto joint-venture, has produced its first batch of carbon-free aluminium, which will be shipped to co-investor Apple this month, Apple told Fastmarkets on December 5.

Glencore has cut its production guidance for cobalt in 2020 to 25,000-33,000 tonnes, down by about a third from 2019’s 41,000-45,000 tonnes, the Swiss miner-trader said this week.

The price of alumina in China fell to its lowest since May 2017 this week amid an abundance of material coming in from the seaborne market despite an already oversupplied domestic market.

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.