IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from July 19

The London Metal Exchange will continue to push forward with relaxing its queue-based rent capping (QBRC) rule, a key area of warehousing reform, to 80 days, sources told Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets understands that there was a warehousing committee meeting on Thursday July 19, during which plans on the warehousing reforms were put to warehousing members.

The zinc price has been fluctuating so much this year that analysts still cannot agree on where it is headed. Commodities researchers from major banks surveyed by Fastmarkets differed by $500 per tonne on their second-half 2019 forecast – that is 23.7% of the galvanizing metal’s current value.

North China copper smelter Baiyin Nonferrous Group’s one-month shutdown in July has had a limited impact on copper concentrates and outright copper prices in China, market sources told Fastmarkets.

Nyrstar lost €31 million ($34.8 million) as a result of closing out inventory zinc and lead hedges in the first half of the year, the company said on Friday July 19.

Chilean molybdenum producer Molymet signed a deal with the trade union representing workers at its MolymetNos plant, ending a month-long strike there, the company said on Thursday July 18.