IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from December 11

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday December 11 that are worth another look.

Japan’s Kanto Tetsugen has secured a higher price at its ferrous scrap auction for December, which is likely to boost sentiment in the Asian market for the steelmaking raw material.

The emergence of a contango in London Metal Exchange aluminium spreads for early next year helped push premiums in the Dutch port of Rotterdam upward in the week ended Tuesday December 10, while rates elsewhere were either unchanged or down amid prevailing weak market conditions.

Chinese copper producer Jiangxi Copper will become the largest shareholder of Canada-listed First Quantum Minerals (FQM) after its $1.12-billion purchase of PIM Cupric Holdings (PCH), which holds around 18.015% of FQM’s issued shares.

A closed arbitrage window between the Shanghai and London exchanges forced nickel premiums in China lower, while a push for market participants to clear stock by year-end in the United States moved premiums lower there as well.

The sharp fall in London Metal Exchange three-month lead price has put upward pressure on the US lead premium. Stock liquidation and weak buying saw the Italian delivered zinc premium decline, while the Shanghai zinc market held firm.

What to read next
The most recent financial results published by base metals mining companies highlight just how inflation is affecting profit margins, with increasing wages, financing costs and input prices all hitting profits, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday March 28
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.