IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from January 13

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Monday January 13 that are worth another look.

Sentiment in the global long steel market has become more positive “especially after the announcement that a trade deal between the [United States] and China will be signed,” the International Rebar Producers & Exporters Association (Irepas) said last week.

International auditing and advisory firm EY has stepped in to assist China’s biggest private copper smelter, Dongying Fangyuan, in navigating problems with frozen assets, lawsuits and access to credit, Fastmarkets has learned.

Fastmarkets has relaunched its ores and alloys cuts counter to track widespread production cutbacks amid the current low prices.

The European ferro-vanadium market moved higher in the week to Friday January 10 amid increased spot market activity, with the vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) market price following the uptrend.

Despite uncertainty surrounding downstream demand, the price of cobalt sulfate in China has jumped by more than 12% so far this year, with suppliers either offering the material at aggressively high levels or holding back from sales.

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.