The webinar “Lithium in South America: An overview of the present and future,” presented the chance to gain valuable insights into the key dynamics currently influencing the lithium markets in South America, alongside expectations for how the regional and global outlook may evolve.

The global tungsten market in 2026 is marked by extreme volatility driven by geopolitical tensions, trade disputes, and resource nationalism, especially between China and the US. These dynamics have caused significant supply disruptions and price surges across tungsten products.

Mitsui & Co has locked in long-term copper concentrate supply by acquiring 40% offtake rights to Argentina's Josemaria deposit, while Fortescue has completed its acquisition of Peru's Cañariaco project for approximately C$139 million ($101 million), marking the latest in a wave of offtake deals and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) while majors race to secure supply amid an increasingly constrained market and record-low treatment charges (TCs).

In the past year, trade policy has and continues to fuel change and dynamics in the North American steel market. Meanwhile, inflation has remained at or above 2.7% while the Fed Fund rate hovers around 2.64. The consumer continues to bear a growing burden to keep the economy from stalling, as finished goods markets search for their own nadir, stability and potential growth paths.

Accelerating energy storage deployment is reshaping lithium demand, broadening the market beyond electric vehicles (EVs) and reducing reliance on a single growth driver.

The European Union’s Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), published on Wednesday March 4, was a new step in the bloc’s efforts to decarbonize heavy industry and to support strategic supply chains in sectors such as steel, cement and aluminium.

The aluminium market is being pulled in two directions by the Middle East conflict: upstream feedstocks sit in temporary buffer stocks, while delivering metal to consuming regions is becoming increasingly difficult.

Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Port of Sohar in Oman are becoming tactical workarounds for base metal exports blocked by the Strait of Hormuz closure, with cargo transiting via land-bridge to other Gulf states, such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates – though capacity constraints and elevated logistics costs limit availability, sources with direct visibility of Gulf supply chains told Fastmarkets.

The Fastmarkets Forest Products Europe Conference 2026 brought together leaders from across the industry to discuss what pressures have gripped markets across the past year. Key takeaways: Interested in getting more insights like this firsthand? You can now register to attend the Fastmarkets Forest Products Latin America Conference 2026. Learn more. As recent geopolitical tension […]

The steel market is increasingly pivoting away from blast furnace (BF) production and toward electric-arc furnaces (EAFs), Keith Shuttlesworth, chief commercial officer of clean iron technology company Electra, told Fastmarkets in an interview on Tuesday March 10.