Critical minerals sector braces for policy upheaval under Trump while experts predict market fundamentals and Republican state interests will preserve industry momentum

Aluminium demand in India is set to continue its sharp growth over the next three years, fueled by an expanding automotive sector in the South Asian country, Fastmarkets heard at the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) international conference held in Jaipur on January 28-30.

Read the January edition of the pallet price newsletter, with analysis on market movements from cancelled strikes to boosted housing starts.

The weaponization of critical minerals supplies due to trade tensions could lead to the kind of emergency that would provide the push that the US needs to develop its metals and mining sector, the chief executive officer of Alaska Energy Metals has said.

President Donald Trump’s long-promised series of day-one executive orders imply a seismic shift in the approach of the United States to the environment, critical minerals and energy.

After years of insufficient domestic supply that brought prices to record highs, China’s fluorspar supply tightness will ease in 2025 due to several newly developed mining sites as well as rising imports from Africa, sources told Fastmarkets, adding that demand from batteries, especially the energy storage sector (ESS), will continue to rise.

The biggest threat to keeping carbon emissions low in the steel industry is imports flowing in from regions where there is a lack of focus on emissions reduction, Kevin Dempsey, president and chief executive officer of the American Iron and Steel Institute, said at Fastmarkets’ second annual Circular Steel Summit on Wednesday January 15 in Houston, Texas.

Africa’s first transcontinental rail network, known as the Lobito Corridor, which aims to eventually connect almost the entire regional copper-cobalt belt with additional links across sub-Saharan Africa, is on track to break ground early in 2026, a senior official at the US Department of State told Fastmarkets.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s second term in office will hit the US steel market hard and fast, delegates heard at Fastmarkets’ second annual Circular Steel Summit on Wednesday January 15 in Houston, Texas.

The European steel and aluminium scrap industries urged the European Commission on Wednesday January 15 against taking action to curb scrap exports after domestic industry metals producers backed measures to do just that.