What was going on in metal markets as May ended? MB editor Alex Harrison looks back at the week

What passed across Metal Bulletin editor Alex Harrison’s screen this week?

Votorantim Metais' (VM) core earnings jumped 74% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014, on higher aluminium and zinc operating margins and depreciation of the Brazilian real, the company said.

Copper scrap imports to China dropped by 5% year-on-year in April to 319, 629 tonnes, according to Chinese customs data.

Trading house Noble has lost its metallurgical coal sales team at its Beijing office, multiple sources told Steel First.

Shanghai cif copper premiums were down by around $5 to $120-125 per tonne on Wednesday May 21 amid an unfavourable arbitrage and a large backwardation in the London market.

Glencore did not treat Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler preferentially when it provided loans to Katanga Mining in 2009, the company said at its annual general meeting on May 20.

What have Metal Bulletin's team of global market reporters been covering over the past week? Catch up with Metal Bulletin's week-in-brief.

Financing for the underground expansion at Mongolia’s Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project has been extended to September, owner Turquoise Hill Resources said on Tuesday May 13.

Nickel was the focus of Metal Bulletin’s attention this week. But what else crossed the desks of its global team of reporters? Editor Alex Harrison reviews the week.