IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from December 4

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday December 4 that are worth another look.

French special steelmaker Ascoval, part of the British Steel group, is to supply 140,000 tonnes per year of semi-finished products, rectangular blooms, to rail manufacturing specialist BSFR (British Steel France Rail) to be processed into rails for the SNCF Réseau national train network at its plant in Hayange, France.

The Chinese government has approved a seventh round of copper scrap import quotas for this year at lower volumes compared to the previous batch, Fastmarkets has learned.

Hebei Steel, China’s second largest steel mill, released its purchase price for silico-manganese at 5,950 yuan ($844) per tonne for December delivery, down by 150 yuan per tonne from its November tender price, market sources told Fastmarkets on December 4.

Global nickel premiums were unchanged in the week ended Tuesday December 3 amid limited spot activity while participants were busy focusing on long-term contract negotiations or celebrating regional holidays.

Taiwanese buyers of zinc ingot have signed 2020 annual supply contracts with major zinc producers at lower premiums compared with this year, sources with knowledge of the matter told Fastmarkets.

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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.