ASIAN MORNING BRIEF 23/11: Copper eyes $7,000/t; FeV contracts settle; Glencore implements changes in Africa

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Thursday November 23.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange closed within striking distance of $7,000 per tonne on Wednesday November 22 due to a weaker dollar and continued technical momentum, while most of the other base metals also finished in positive territory. Read more in our live futures report.
  
Here’s how prices looked at 18.17 London time.

Frame contracts for ferro-vanadium have been agreed with discounts against third-party references in a range of 3-5% in Europe and the United States for 2018, multiple sources told Metal Bulletin.

Glencore will implement structural changes across its copper department after an internal accounting review at Katanga Mining identified “material weaknesses,” leading to the resignation of four directors including the trader-miner’s head of copper.

Afarak is focusing on niche ferro-chrome production and diversity of customer base, which has given the Helsinki-based producer confidence in its ability to compete in the global market.

The London Metal Exchange is consulting on plans to introduce a $1 per lot over-the-counter (OTC) booking fee next year that is designed to rebalance the disparity between the cost of trading on-exchange and in the OTC market. 

While zinc prices have doubled in the past two years, the industry has been racing against time to locate profitable zinc mining projects and compete for funds to bring production on stream.

Growing export volumes of steel slab from Iran are enhancing the country’s standing in the global market for the semifinished product and are already having an influence on slab pricing in other markets.

Mineração Usiminas expects the average iron ore sale price in the global market to hover around $65 per tonne in 2018, executive director Wilfred Bruijn said.

China is unlikely to relent in its drive to reduce its steel output, which will result in protectionist as well as environmental benefits, according to Michael Widmer, director and metal strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

What to read next
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for its steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, €/tonne (MB-STE-0028) and steel hot-rolled coil index, fob mill US Midwest, $/cwt (MB-STE-0184), via an open consultation process between March 25 and April 27, 2026.
This consultation, which was open until April 30, sought to ensure that our methodologies continue to reflect the physical market, in compliance with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles for Price Reporting Agencies (PRAs). This includes all elements of our pricing process, our price specifications and publication frequency. The price under review was:MB-IRO-0004 […]
The rationale for MB-CU-0287 copper concentrates TC index, cif Asia Pacific had erroneously stated that “The copper VIU was $0.18/t on May 1, up from $0.94/t on April 17.” This has been corrected to “The copper VIU was $0.18/t on May 1, down from $0.94/t on April 17.” The published price is unaffected by this change. These prices […]
Own-sourced copper output from Glencore’s African copper assets — KCC and Mutanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo — surged by 68% year on year to 67,900 tonnes over the same period, while Glencore’s cobalt production fell by 39% year on year amid the DRC’s export quota system.
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the methodology of its price assessments for ferro-chrome 50% Cr import, cif main Chinese ports, and European high carbon ferro-chrome, as part of its annual methodology review process.
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the methodology of its price assessments for ferro-tungsten basis 75% W, in-whs dup Rotterdam, and tungsten APT 88.5% WO3 min cif Rotterdam and Baltimore duty-free, as part of its annual methodology review process.