IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from October 16

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday October 16 that are worth another look.

Slab shipments to foreign subsidiaries and affiliates of Russia’s largest steelmaker, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), fell by 43% year on year in the third quarter of 2019.

A strike kicked off on October 16 at Antofagasta’s Antucoya copper project after workers could not reach an agreement on wage increases with the Chilean miner.

Persisting backwardations in London Metal Exchange forward price spreads continued to pressure global aluminium premiums in the week ended Tuesday October 15, with the benchmark duty-unpaid premium in the Dutch port of Rotterdam softening for the third week in a row.

Manganese ore traders are becoming increasingly cautious about buying seaborne cargoes after suffering severe losses on large positions amid recent price falls.

Physical zinc premiums in Shanghai softened in the week to October 15, with the import loss for bringing zinc into the region widening by just under $100 per tonne since last week; meanwhile a drop in the Northern Europe premium was exacerbated by poor demand and tight forward spreads.

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The United States' copper recycling industry is ramping up pressure on policymakers to impose some form of export controls on high-purity copper scrap, arguing that current trade dynamics – particularly with China – are distorting prices, weakening domestic capacity and undermining national security goals.
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US copper scrap market participants are shifting from COMEX to LME pricing in response to extreme price volatility and a new 50% copper import tariff. The change is influencing discount formulas, export strategies and long-term trading dynamics across the sector.