IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from January 8

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday January 8 that are worth another look.

The penetration of nickel-cobalt-manganese type-811 batteries into the Chinese electric vehicle industry will be quite limited in 2019, market participants have told Fastmarkets.

A new duty on imported copper raw materials in Zambia has already led to consequences, with producers planning to reduce output while some concentrates from the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo could be diverted to other markets, including China, Fastmarkets has learned.

India’s Supreme Court has upheld an earlier order to reopen Sterlite Copper’s Tuticorin smelter, which was closed for environmental reasons, parent company Vedanta said on Tuesday January 8.

European long steel buyers were quiet throughout December on uncertainties arising from the United States’ various trade wars, but a European Commission quota proposal in January has offered some hope of more certainty to sellers.

The US ferrous scrap market is clearly a buyer’s market in January, with sellers of steel turnings feeling the biggest sting in a monthly settlement rife with huge corrections.

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US export controls on recycled copper would have unintended consequences that could weaken the country’s domestic recycling and manufacturing ecosystems, the president of the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) said.
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The United States' copper recycling industry is ramping up pressure on policymakers to impose some form of export controls on high-purity copper scrap, arguing that current trade dynamics – particularly with China – are distorting prices, weakening domestic capacity and undermining national security goals.
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US copper scrap market participants are shifting from COMEX to LME pricing in response to extreme price volatility and a new 50% copper import tariff. The change is influencing discount formulas, export strategies and long-term trading dynamics across the sector.