The news that President-elect Donald Trump is considering additional tariffs on goods from China as well as on all products from US trading partners Canada and Mexico has spurred alarm in the US aluminium market at a time that is usually known to be calm.

The merging of two of North America’s lithium producers, Piedmont Lithium and Sayona Mining, aims to provide optionality over growth projects and enhance the companies’ strategic flexibility, according to Fastmarkets’ head of base metals and battery research William Adams.

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have been reaching upstream to producers, beyond their agreements with their battery manufacturing partners, to secure North American supply for their production, battery materials and technology company Novonix’s chief executive officer Chris Burns told Fastmarkets

Insteel Wire Products Company announced it will cease operations at its factory in Warren, Ohio, next week.

POSCO Pilbara Lithium Solution (PPLS) will complete construction of Train 2 at its lithium hydroxide monohydrate conversion facility in Gwangyang, South Korea, by early December 2024, a company source told Fastmarkets, with delivery of the first batch of lithium hydroxide expected within two months from then.

The shift in China from nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries, which mainly use lithium hydroxide, to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which use lithium carbonate, is leading to a wider price spread between the two materials, prompting producers there to shift from hydroxide to carbonate.

China’s electric vehicle (EV) and battery industry participants expect more uncertainty under a second Donald Trump presidency amid the president-elect’s intention to scale back the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and pursue expanded protectionist trade policies, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 7

Chinese steelmakers exporting low-carbon emission steel products will be among key users of green ferro-alloys, mainly because of the carbon emissions reduction requirements of the end users in their export destinations, sources told Fastmarkets.

Concerns over a potential decline in investments in the decarbonization of the steel industry are growing following the confirmation that Donald Trump will soon be returning as president of the United States, sources told Fastmarkets this week.

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