IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from April 17

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Friday April 17 that are worth another look.

Prices paid for Brazil-origin steel slab in export deals have narrowed in the week ended April 17, with recovering demand in Asia and Europe resulting in increased numbers of deals, sources said.

The Covid-19 pandemic is a unifier in that it impacts all. But sub-Saharan Africa is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis that threatens to throw the region off its stride, reversing the development progress of recent years and hitting the mining sector hard.

Rio Tinto has cut its 2020 copper production guidance due to the Covid-19 pandemic and an earthquake last month at its Kennecott operations in the US state of Utah.

The Chinese domestic spot battery-grade lithium carbonate price fell by 2.7% on Thursday April 16 after buyers dropped offers again to stimulate a reluctant market, while the Asian seaborne market finally ended its steady streak.

The price of vanadium pentoxide in Europe jumped by more than 25% in the week ended Friday April 17 due to concerns over obtaining the material during the continued lockdown in South Africa.

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The most recent financial results published by base metals mining companies highlight just how inflation is affecting profit margins, with increasing wages, financing costs and input prices all hitting profits, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday March 28
Century Aluminum is among those selected to start award negotiations for up to $500 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding to build a new aluminium smelter, the company said on Monday March 25
Participants in the copper concentrates market are struggling to comprehend an “unstoppable” decline in treatment and refinement charges (TC/RCs), with every week bringing spot deals at fresh lows and rumors each “crazier” than the last, sources have told Fastmarkets
The US Department of Energy selected five base metals projects to receive more than $900 million in federal investment from its Industrial Demonstration Program (IDP), leading to a reduction of four million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to a statement by the Department on Monday March 25
Aluminium producer and recycler Constellium announced on Tuesday March 12 that the company is moving to test hydrogen utilization at an industrial scale as a power source in its casthouses
Fastmarkets has corrected its MB-ALU-0002 alumina index, fob Australia and its MB-ALU-0010 alumina inferred index, fob Brazil, which were published incorrectly on Monday March 18.