IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from January 23

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday January 23 that are worth another look.

The London Metal Exchange’s warrant depository has begun to show delays after large amounts of warrants were canceled, sources told Fastmarkets MB. More than 130,000 tonnes of aluminium was freshly canceled on the exchange over the past two days, with traders expecting the cancellations to continue.

Privately-owned Sigma Broking Ltd has approached LME members to acquire B shares as it moves forward with a plan to become the first new Category I ring-trading entity since 2007, well-informed sources told Fastmarkets.

China’s imported volumes of copper scrap fell by almost one-third in 2018 from the year before, following the implementation of various scrap import barriers and a tariff on material from major supplier the United States.

The US hot-rolled coil market faces another important year in 2019, one that has already seen many unexpected developments, including a surprise decline in ferrous scrap prices in January. Fastmarkets AMM has summarized five of the most important developments that market participants should watch this year.

Major Chinese mills’ daily crude steel output increased in early January, but their finished steel inventory levels dropped slightly.

What to read next
Navigating LME nickel: A cautious optimism amid bearish sentiment
There’s broad agreement that DeepSeek has upended the artificial intelligence (AI) sector by developing a cutting-edge large language model that uses less computational power, but whether improved AI efficiency cuts demand for copper in the data centers used to power it is a matter of debate.
Aluminium demand in India is set to continue its sharp growth over the next three years, fueled by an expanding automotive sector in the South Asian country, Fastmarkets heard at the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) international conference held in Jaipur on January 28-30.
After a consultation period, Fastmarkets is increasing the publication frequency of two copper concentrates index coefficients — MB-CU-0422 copper concentrates counterparty spread and MB-CU-0423 copper concentrates Co-VIU — from monthly to fortnightly.
Over a decade since its first attempt, Glencore appears to have taken another tilt at Rio Tinto.
Participants in the market for copper scrap and blister in China, the world’s largest importer of copper raw materials, expect there to be fiercer competition for material in 2025, industry sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday January 9.