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Among the key talking points across the battery raw materials markets ahead of Fastmarkets’ second annual Battery Materials Conference this week in Shanghai include the outlook for China’s cobalt metal imports, cobalt hedging appetites, whether a shift to nickel-rich cathode chemistries is being expedited by lower cobalt prices and lithium supply pressure, among others.
Société Generale will close its proprietary and over-the-counter (OTC) commodities business including its metals trading, as part of a global cost-cutting exercise involving 1,600 job losses, the company said on Tuesday April 9. The French bank is a Category I London Metal Exchange dealer and plans to continue this activity through its brokerage arm Newedge Group, informed sources confirmed to Fastmarkets.
Tata Steel India achieved its highest-ever crude steel output in the last quarter of its financial year ending March 31, 2019. Indian steel demand is expected to grow by 7.3% in 2019 to 102.3 million tonnes, compared with a forecast of 95.4 million tonnes for this year.
Guangxi Nanguo Copper Industry plans to start up its 300,000-tonne-per-year, Phase II project in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region of southern China on April 10, a company executive told Fastmarkets this week.
The impending bankruptcy faced by Vietnam’s Thai Nguyen Iron & Steel Joint Stock Co will have a limited impact on the Vietnamese ferrous scrap import market, market sources told Fastmarkets MB this week.