IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from April 26

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday April 26 that are worth another look.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is doomed unless President Donald Trump’s administration removes Section 232 tariffs – and the threat of quotas – from steel and aluminium imported from the United States’ neighbors, two trade experts said.

Warrant traders are reporting an uptick in European zinc warrants available on the London Metal Exchange amid fresh inflows of material this month, while a strong backwardation in the metal’s nearby spreads has left participants questioning what is incentivizing buying.

Lead and zinc recycler Recylex reported sales revenue of €75.8 million ($84.76 million) in the first quarter of 2019, a fall of 20% year on year due to major maintenance shutdowns and falling prices for lead and zinc, the company said on Wednesday April 24.

Anglo American’s refined copper production increased by 4% in the first quarter of 2019 due to rising higher-grade ore output at its Los Bronces and El Soldado mines in central Chile.

If the United States places import tariffs on cars produced in Germany it could trigger an economic slowdown in Germany, corporate audit director of Czech steel distributor Ferona, Jan Moravec, said at Eurometal’s Regional Meeting in Central Europe held in Prague on April 25.

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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.
The publication of Fastmarkets’ US base metals prices were published early during the week of March 11-15 following the daylight saving time change in the US on March 10.