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

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

United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday July 15 aimed at maximizing the use of American-made products and materials, the third pillar of his “Buy American, Hire American” plans.

The London Metal Exchange will list Huayou’s cobalt cut cathodes with immediate effect, it announced in a note to members on July 16. 
 
Rio Tinto’s mined copper production fell by 13% year on year in April-June 2019 due to lower production from its Escondida and Kennecott projects, reflective of lower grades, the company said on July 16.

Chinese flake graphite export prices will face headwinds in the near term due to a slowdown in its traditional downstream supply chain and a surge of imported materials, delegates said on the sidelines of an industry conference in Qiandaohu, China, on July 11-12.

Ferro-Alloys Resources, the vanadium mining and processing company based in Kazakhstan, increased its output of vanadium pentoxide in the first half of this year to 71.5 tonnes, it said in a press release on Tuesday.

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Asian spot copper premiums rose in the week ended Tuesday July 23, with premiums imported into China increasing on improved arbitrage terms. In the US market, supply failed to keep up with strong demand while in Europe participants were mostly off for the summer holidays
In the fourth episode of Fastmarkets critical minerals podcast Fast Forward, Freeport-McMoRan CEO and president Kathleen Quirk tells host Andrea Hotter why there's a preference to build and not build new supplies of copper right now
Demand for primary aluminium from the green transition remains a “brighter spot” for consumption amid an otherwise challenging downstream demand outlook, Eivind Kallevik, Norsk Hydro’s chief executive officer and president, told Fastmarkets in an exclusive interview on Tuesday July 23
Acquisition Company Limited (ACG) has agreed to buy the Gediktepe mine in Turkey — the company’s first deal as it works to build a sizeable mid-tier copper producer, its chairman and chief executive officer told Fastmarkets.
Copper market price speculation is driving the base metals narrative, head of research at UK-based services provider Sucden Financial Daria Efanova said during the company’s third-quarter metals webinar on Wednesday July 17.
Chinese mining giant CMOC reported a 178% year-on-year increase in cobalt metal production for the first six months of 2024, according to an announcement by the company on Friday July 12