EUROPEAN MORNING BRIEF 14/08: SHFE base metals all down; South32 acquires Arizona Mining; global manganese wrap

Good morning from Metal Bulletin’s offices in Asia as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Tuesday August 14.

Base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange succumbed to pressure from a volatile currency market during morning trading on Tuesday, with the fall of the Turkish lira against the US dollar negatively affecting market sentiment.

Check Metal Bulletin’s live futures report here.

South32 Ltd has completed the acquisition of Arizona Mining for $1.3bln, building further on the Perth, Australia-headquartered zinc portfolio at a time of relatively limited greenfield mine supply.

The Sukpo zinc smelter in South Korea, which has links to major producer Korea Zinc, has been closed and will remain so until September for environmental reasons, a company source told Metal Bulletin.

Metal Bulletin’s manganese ore indices lacked direction in the week ended Friday August 10 prior to September offers, while market participants queried whether fundamentals or traders taking positions had supported alloys on the Chinese spot market.

Ample supply and weak demand continued to push ammonium paratungstate prices down in the week ended August 10.