IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from January 16

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Thursday January 16 that are worth another look.

Trading activity in the Iranian export market for steel billet and slab slowed down in the week ended Wednesday January 15, with the United States tightening its sanctions against a number of the Middle Eastern country’s major steelmakers amid increased tension between the two nations.

Fresh off the delivery of its first commercial batch from the Alcoa-Rio Tinto joint-venture Elysis to Apple last month, Alcoa expects the market will soon create a separate premium for less-carbon intensive aluminium, but the producer believes the market is not ready just yet.

Copper production at the Deziwa copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has officially come online in January 2020, following successful trial operations in December 2019, sources told Fastmarkets this week.

A preliminary trade agreement between the United States and China has done little to change the outlook for industrial minerals and minor metals, with no sign of a reversal for tariffs on Chinese material and no firm commitments on Chinese purchases.

South32 reduced high-cost trucking of manganese ore at its South African operations in the three months to December 31, 2019, in response to lower manganese ore prices, the miner announced on January 16.

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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.
Lundin Mining and BHP published a preliminary economic assessment on February 16 for their Vicuña joint venture, projecting average annual copper production of 395,000 tonnes over the first 25 years of operation as Argentina’s copper concentrate pipeline continues to build. PSJ Cobre Mendocino separately confirmed on February 14 that its feasibility study was under way.
Chinese lead smelters turned more bearish on the procurement of raw materials in the week to Friday February 13, amid heightened price volatility in silver, which is often contained in lead ores as an important by-product and contributor to smelter profits, sources told Fastmarkets.
Roughly 40,000 tonnes per month of copper cathode that once flowed smoothly into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through Jebel Ali had few options to reroute after the Strait of Hormuz officially closed on Monday March 2, with the only alternative entry points — Khor Fakkan and Fujairah — already straining under the weight of diverted cargo, market sources told Fastmarkets.
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