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.