IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from September 11

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Wednesday September 11 that are worth another look.

Australian multi-metal miner Blackstone Minerals considers Vietnam a reliable and equitable jurisdiction for nickel production and export once the Indonesian ore export ban comes into effect in January 2020, chief executive officer Scott Williamson told Fastmarkets last week.

Zambian copper production will drop by 11.6% this year after a series of tax reforms have led to production cost hikes, an industry body said in a statement on September 11.

Brazilian flat and long steel producer Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) has extended a blast furnace maintenance outage by several weeks, market participants told Fastmarkets on September 11.

The recent rise in ferro-vanadium and vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) import interest in China will likely add further downward pressure on the Chinese domestic market, market sources told Fastmarkets during the Ferro-alloynet International Vanadium Conference on Tuesday September 10.

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEX) has made a proposal to the board of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) to buy the stock exchange, combining the two companies.

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The Western world’s industrial strength is beginning to drop, but Jakob Stausholm, chief executive officer of Rio Tinto, said at a London Metal Exchange seminar that there was “plenty of demand to be unlocked from reindustrialization.”