OM Manganese will spend as much as Australian $7.3 million ($5.2 million) to establish a manganese ore joint venture in western Australia with copper-gold-manganese explorer Bryah Resources, Fastmarkets heard on Wednesday April 24.
Carmaker BMW has locked in supply of cobalt metal produced at the Murrin Murrin mine in western Australia and the CTT mine in Morocco for the production of electric vehicles, market sources confirmed to Fastmarkets.
Primary aluminium production in western Europe dropped by 36,000 tonnes, or 3.9% year on year, in the first quarter of 2019 while demand from the automotive sector has been weakening in all major EU markets.
The slowdown in the Brazilian economy is putting estimates for aluminium product consumption in the country at risk, president of sector association Abal Milton Rego told Fastmarkets on April 23.
Egypt, the largest producer of direct-reduced iron (DRI) in northern Africa, will increase its output further in 2019, Fastmarkets heard at the North Africa Iron & Steel Summit in Cairo on April 16-17. The country, the largest consumer of direct-reduced (DR) grade pellets in North Africa, could face a short-term pellet shortage as a result of Vale’s production cuts, Fastmarkets heard separately at the summit.
