IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from May 19

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Tuesday May 19 that are worth another look.

German diversified industrial group Thyssenkrupp has detailed its restructuring plan, confirming plans to sell shares in its steel business and sell or close its heavy plate sites.

Swedish state-owned iron-ore producer LKAB has confirmed that all production at its Kiruna mine has stopped following a seismic event on Monday, the company said on May 19.

Demand for copper products is likely to continue to worsen, Aurubis said even while reporting a profit for the second quarter of its financial year.

A string of Covid-19 cases among staff at Polyus PJSC, Russia’s largest gold mine and main antimony ore supplier, could threaten exports of concentrates from the country, sources have said.

China’s domestic prices of vanadium alloy products including ferro-vanadium and vanadium nitrogen continued to rise, though marginally, in the past week due to improved sentiment amid some positive signs in the downstream steel market, sources told Fastmarkets.

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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.