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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Vedanta Resources’ Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Zambia is set for a major revival, after years of under-investment and political uncertainty. The move is being driven by a convergence of capital, government support and shifting geopolitics, according to a senior executive at CopperTech Metals.
With time, it is natural that low-carbon aluminium will be valued, and that the market will pay a green premium because clients are each day demanding more certificates, Anderson Baranov, chief executive officer of Norsk Hydro Brazil told Fastmarkets in an interview on Thursday October 30.
Explore the evolving market for base metals as nickel faces competition from lithium iron phosphate alternatives.
Fastmarkets has corrected its MB-ALU-0003 alumina inferred index, fob Brazil, which was published incorrectly on Thursday October 30 due to a technical error. MB-ALU-0010 Alumina index inferred, fob Brazil was published in error as $340.40 per dry metric tonne. It has been corrected to $341.49 per dmt. MB-ALU-0003 Alumina index adjustment to fob Australia index, Brazil was […]
As global smelting margins weaken, a quiet revival is taking shape in the United States as new copper smelting and refining projects gather momentum. Policy shifts, strategic incentives and the push for industrial resilience are driving investment that could close America’s long-standing processing gap and reshape its role in the global copper market.
The publication of Fastmarkets’ MB-ALU-0002 alumina index, fob Australia assessment for Thursday October 30 was delayed because of a reporter error. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated.