The temporary increase on import tariffs for several steel products in Brazil should not lead to domestic price readjustments as the federal government will monitor such prices.

The trouble with looking both east and west is that it is hard to focus on one if you are being distracted by the other.

On one side of the world, BHP Billiton decides to scrap a $20 billion copper project, downsizing its prospective portfolio by more than 500,000 tpy in response to weaker conditions in commodities markets and higher costs in the mining industry.

Mongolia should not become too dependent on the "very volatile" industry of mining, its central bank's deputy governor said.

I expect most readers will be able to remember October 2011, although it seems that one person would appear to be hoping that such a span is too much for the memory of speculative investors.

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta posted a drop in first-half earnings of just 5%, thanks to the contribution of its Esperanza mine. “We delivered a very strong operational performance," cfo Alejandro Rivera (pictured) said.

Annual financial statements from some of the major mining companies have not made particularly cheerful reading over recent weeks.

The big financial scandal this month is slightly different from the normal business of rigging markets and uncontrollably large positions.

The slowing down of Chinese economic growth, while probably predictable – nothing goes in one direction for ever – looks as though it may pose some severe problems for the producers and traders of hard commodities.

The vogue phrase amongst politicians struggling with the world’s economic woes seems to be “whatever it takes”.