IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from April 8

Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Wednesday April 8 that are worth another look.

World trade will fall by more this year than during the downturn brought on by the global financial crisis of 2008-09 as the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are felt.

The fate of the steel world continues to hang in the balance: Numerous scrapyards have stopped operations, blast furnaces around the world have stopped and aggressive offers by traders for Russian and Indian supply have pushed prices down further.

Chinese-Australian miner MMG has declared force majeure at its major copper project Las Bambas after Peru extended its national state of emergency, Fastmarkets learned.

French mining and metals group Eramet will put on hold the construction of its Argentinian lithium production plant for an indefinite period due to the economic uncertainty sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Citic Metal, the exclusive sales agent in China for ferro-niobium from Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração, has set its quarterly price for the April-June period at 205,000-225,000 yuan ($29,035-31,867) per tonne, market sources told Fastmarkets.

What to read next
Copper in concentrate production from Ivanhoe Mines' Kamoa-Kakula complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fell to 61,906 tonnes in the first quarter, down by 54% from 133,120 tonnes a year earlier, with the company now evaluating local third-party concentrate purchases to advance the ramp-up of its on-site smelter, according to an April 13 production release as the market focused its attention on the impact of global sulfuric acid shortages during CESCO Week in Chile from April 13-17.
China's planned sulfuric acid export ban from May 1, historic lows for copper concentrates treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) and a fragmenting 2026 benchmark system dominated CESCO Week 2026 in Santiago from April 13-17.
The proposal would align the index more closely with physically traded volumes in the region, and enable it to adjust to evolving market conditions. This proposal follows an observed widening of the spread between trader and smelter purchase components of the index and is aligned with a majority of market feedback. Additionally, Fastmarkets seeks feedback […]
Until now, aluminium has been hard to move, not hard to find. Global aluminium supply had remained technically intact, even as output was curtailed in parts of the Gulf, inventory buffers were drawn down or repositioned, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was severely disrupted.
Global aluminium producers face heightened uncertainty over power supplies, with oil and gas prices elevated by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows, sources told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets is extending the consultation period for the methodology of several of its black mass payables indicators and prices, and is also proposing changes to the names of CIF South Korea and EWX Europe black mass prices.