IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from April 18

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday April 18 that are worth another look.

The decision by the European Commission to suspend carbon emissions allowances issued by the UK government under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme is expected to remain valid until the UK is able to reach a deal with the EU on the country’s exit from the union, Richard Warren, head of policy at industry body UK Steel, told Fastmarkets on Thursday April 18.

Alcoa’s revenue for the first quarter of 2019 totaled $2.7 billion, down by 19% from the fourth quarter of 2018, due to lower alumina and aluminium prices.

A forecast downtrend in the mid- to long-term London Metal Exchange cash zinc price could bring about a shortage of zinc mining projects, BMO Capital Markets analyst Kash Kamal said in a presentation at Fastmarkets’ International Lead & Zinc conference on Monday April 15.

The Chinese domestic indium price dropped by 4% week on week on April 17 in response to news that the Fanya Metal Exchange will again auction 34.64 tonnes of the indium stock it holds in its warehouse, after the first auction in January failed to attract any bidders.

Copper fund Red Kite has settled its $850-million market manipulation lawsuit with Barclays out of court, the latter said in a statement on April 18.

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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.
The availability of relatively untapped resources, a huge influx of Chinese investment and a rapid licensing system have helped the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to become one of the world’s three key producers of copper.
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.
Renewed US-China trade tensions with Donald Trump’s second presidential term could bolster Southeast Asia’s aluminium scrap industry in 2025, particularly amid still-growing Chinese demand, sources told Fastmarkets by Tuesday, January 14.
European steel and aluminium producers have urged the European Commission to take immediate and effective action to tackle "scrap leakage" so that the European Union can meet its sustainable development aims and secure industrial competitiveness.