Good morning from Metal Bulletin’s offices in Asia as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Friday June 29.

Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mostly down during Asian morning trading on Friday June 29, following a muted performance by the base metals on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday.

Chinese steel prices have been rangebound in June despite plunging inventory levels, with trade war fears and economic jitters keeping market participants on the sidelines for most of the month.

Metal Bulletin proposes to increase the frequency of its assessment of cfr Southeast Asia import prices for steel billet to daily from weekly.

China’s domestic spot battery-grade lithium hydroxide prices fell further on Thursday June 28 on a negative short-term outlook due to sporadic buying and while carbonate prices were unchanged this week, they were still under pressure with downstream buyers starting to receive lower offers.

The latest news and price moves to start the Asian day on Friday June 29.

As every year, Crow’s will not be published the July 4 week, which runs from July 2-6 this year. We will be back on our regular schedule the week of July 9.  

GFG Alliance is eyeing what it calls “higher value” steel long products rather than flat-rolled products for potential US acquisitions, a top executive told American Metal Market.

Oil and gas conglomerate BP plc is to buy Chargemaster, the UK’s largest electric vehicles (EVs) charging company, and plans to deploy the network across its forecourts in the country over the next 12 months.

China’s 10 largest copper smelters have assessed current treatment charges (TCs) at above $90 per tonne at a meeting on Thursday June 28 without officially disclosing its base level for the third-quarter procurement, Metal Bulletin has learned.