IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from November 27

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday November 27 that are worth another look.

Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau has agreed to buy 96.4% of Siderúrgica Latino-Americana (Silat) shares from Spanish group Hierros Añón for $110.8 million, in a shift from its divestment strategy of the past four years.

Shifting London Metal Exchange zinc and lead prices have dictated premiums this past week, overriding fundamental shortages from key suppliers.

Miner-trader Glencore suspended operations at its Mutanda copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) early this week – a month earlier than previously expected.

The London Metal Exchange’s cash-settled alumina futures contract, which is settled against a basket of prices that includes Fastmarkets’ index, has seen a flurry of activity on the January 2020 prompt date.

Nickel premiums have fallen in the United States over the past week on a year-end push for sales while rates in China are mixed and those in Europe are flat.

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.