IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from July 24

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday July 24 that are worth another look.

While Vedanta cheered over South Africa’s recent court ruling against the Zambian government’s liquidation of its majority-owned Konkola Copper Mines, Zambian officials rebuked the decision and denied the enforceability of the foreign ruling that determines the future of the country’s largest copper smelting assets.

Market participants are referring to a zinc concentrates deal between miner Teck Resources and smelter Nyrstar as a European benchmark, aligning with deals at the same level in Asia.

The downward trend in automotive sales in the United States, Europe and China is weighing on aluminium suppliers, although its impact on Constellium NV has been modest, the company’s top executive said.

The dramatic shift in the dynamics of the lithium market over the past four years has changed business practices and increased demand for price transparency.

Major swings in the prices of both nickel and tin over the past month could presage similar moves across the base metals complex, reflecting the waning influence of the US-China trade war on the metals markets.

What to read next
The most recent financial results published by base metals mining companies highlight just how inflation is affecting profit margins, with increasing wages, financing costs and input prices all hitting profits, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday March 28
Century Aluminum is among those selected to start award negotiations for up to $500 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding to build a new aluminium smelter, the company said on Monday March 25
Participants in the copper concentrates market are struggling to comprehend an “unstoppable” decline in treatment and refinement charges (TC/RCs), with every week bringing spot deals at fresh lows and rumors each “crazier” than the last, sources have told Fastmarkets
The US Department of Energy selected five base metals projects to receive more than $900 million in federal investment from its Industrial Demonstration Program (IDP), leading to a reduction of four million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to a statement by the Department on Monday March 25
Aluminium producer and recycler Constellium announced on Tuesday March 12 that the company is moving to test hydrogen utilization at an industrial scale as a power source in its casthouses
Fastmarkets has corrected its MB-ALU-0002 alumina index, fob Australia and its MB-ALU-0010 alumina inferred index, fob Brazil, which were published incorrectly on Monday March 18.