IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from March 13

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday March 13 that are worth another look.

Moves to enhance electronic trading on the London Metal Exchange are not a back-door attempt to close the ring, Europe’s last open outcry trading floor, the exchange’s chief executive officer said.

The Singapore Exchange has seen a “tremendous uptick” in iron ore futures trading activity due to supply concerns following the deadly breach at one of Vale’s tailings dams earlier this year.

Rusal’s aluminium shipments to the United States are unlikely to reach pre-sanction levels this year, but the Russian aluminium producer does plan an eventual return to those levels.

After the ferro-alloys industry gathered in Hong Kong this week for Fastmarkets’ Asian Ferro-alloys conference, our reporters presented 10 of the key things learned.

Further delays in Codelco’s restart of its Chuquicamata smelter and expectations that China will cut its value-added tax rate from May have prompted a small recovery in Chinese copper premiums, Fastmarkets has learned.

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Mitsui & Co has locked in long-term copper concentrate supply by acquiring 40% offtake rights to Argentina's Josemaria deposit, while Fortescue has completed its acquisition of Peru's Cañariaco project for approximately C$139 million ($101 million), marking the latest in a wave of offtake deals and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) while majors race to secure supply amid an increasingly constrained market and record-low treatment charges (TCs).
The European Union’s Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), published on Wednesday March 4, was a new step in the bloc’s efforts to decarbonize heavy industry and to support strategic supply chains in sectors such as steel, cement and aluminium.
Fastmarkets will increase the frequency of its two existing CIF China port copper scrap prices and add three new grades on Monday March 16.
Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Port of Sohar in Oman are becoming tactical workarounds for base metal exports blocked by the Strait of Hormuz closure, with cargo transiting via land-bridge to other Gulf states, such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates – though capacity constraints and elevated logistics costs limit availability, sources with direct visibility of Gulf supply chains told Fastmarkets.
The Mexican aluminium market might be strongly affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with supply constraints and consequently higher premiums, market participants told Fastmarkets on Tuesday March 10.
Lundin Mining and BHP published a preliminary economic assessment on February 16 for their Vicuña joint venture, projecting average annual copper production of 395,000 tonnes over the first 25 years of operation as Argentina’s copper concentrate pipeline continues to build. PSJ Cobre Mendocino separately confirmed on February 14 that its feasibility study was under way.