IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from August 14

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday August 14 that are worth another look.

A series of press reports relating to the changes in Indonesia’s nickel ore export ban policy amid volatile nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange has left market participants baffled, Fastmarkets understands.

China announced a third round of copper scrap import quotas on August 14, allowing a select list of importers to bring an additional 87,680 tonnes of copper scrap into the country by the end of 2019, according to the Bureau of International Recycling.

The suspension of iron ore exports from SL Mining’s operations at Marampa in Sierra Leone left stockpiles of more than 500,000 tonnes of concentrates at the mine in the Port Loko district, according to the company.

Trading volumes on the London Metal Exchange declined by 6% in the first half of 2019, parent company Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing said in its own half-year results announcement.

The conspicuous absence of Turkish mills from the East Coast ferrous scrap export market has started to take its toll, with Boston docks lowering prices effective from Tuesday August 13 and headwinds in global rebar prices likely to drag scrap prices lower.

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Fastmarkets has corrected its copper concentrates treatment and refinement charge indices, which were published incorrectly on February 27 2026 due to a backend calculation error. Fastmarkets has also corrected the indices' rationale and all related inferred indices.
Mitsui & Co has locked in long-term copper concentrate supply by acquiring 40% offtake rights to Argentina's Josemaria deposit, while Fortescue has completed its acquisition of Peru's Cañariaco project for approximately C$139 million ($101 million), marking the latest in a wave of offtake deals and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) while majors race to secure supply amid an increasingly constrained market and record-low treatment charges (TCs).
The European Union’s Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), published on Wednesday March 4, was a new step in the bloc’s efforts to decarbonize heavy industry and to support strategic supply chains in sectors such as steel, cement and aluminium.
Fastmarkets will increase the frequency of its two existing CIF China port copper scrap prices and add three new grades on Monday March 16.
Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Port of Sohar in Oman are becoming tactical workarounds for base metal exports blocked by the Strait of Hormuz closure, with cargo transiting via land-bridge to other Gulf states, such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates – though capacity constraints and elevated logistics costs limit availability, sources with direct visibility of Gulf supply chains told Fastmarkets.
The Mexican aluminium market might be strongly affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with supply constraints and consequently higher premiums, market participants told Fastmarkets on Tuesday March 10.