IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from October 1

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday October 1 that are worth another look.

Chilean miner Codelco has increased its United States’ annual copper cathode premium to 3.1 cents per lb for 2020 supply, making it the benchmark’s highest level since 2016, sources close to the matter confirmed to Fastmarkets.

The benchmark premium paid for the supply of aluminium to main Japanese ports (MJP) in the fourth quarter of 2019 has settled at $97 per tonne on a cif basis over the London Metal Exchange cash price.

Adjustments to EU safeguard measures will “stabilize trade flows by containing import concentrations from certain exporting countries,” the European steel association Eurofer said on October 1.

Prices of cobalt metal, salts and hydroxide continued their upward momentum in September, while the chemical prices outperformed amid strong demand incited by concerns of supply tightness following the news on Glencore’s Mutanda mine closure in early August.

Ferro-alloys prices will continue to trade lower going into 2020 amid slowing economic and steel production growth, Fastmarkets analyst, Amy Bennett, told delegates at the North-American Ferro-alloys conference in Chicago last week.

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The proposal would align the index more closely with physically traded volumes in the region, and enable it to adjust to evolving market conditions. This proposal follows an observed widening of the spread between trader and smelter purchase components of the index and is aligned with a majority of market feedback. Additionally, Fastmarkets seeks feedback […]
Until now, aluminium has been hard to move, not hard to find. Global aluminium supply had remained technically intact, even as output was curtailed in parts of the Gulf, inventory buffers were drawn down or repositioned, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was severely disrupted.
Global aluminium producers face heightened uncertainty over power supplies, with oil and gas prices elevated by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows, sources told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets is extending the consultation period for the methodology of several of its black mass payables indicators and prices, and is also proposing changes to the names of CIF South Korea and EWX Europe black mass prices.
Rio Tinto Aluminium is expanding its footprint beyond its historic hydro-powered Canadian base, targeting Europe, Asia and Latin America as part of a deliberate diversification strategy, according to the unit’s chief executive officer.
Fastmarkets has corrected its copper concentrates treatment and refinement charge indices, which were published incorrectly on March 20 2026 due to a technical error.