Global long steel consumption was expected to reach 851 million tonnes in 2019, up by 2.4% year on year although mounting political uncertainties such as trade wars and the UK’s intended exit from the EU may soften this growth, according to steelmaker Celsa.
Despite concerns of low prices and poor demand, the aluminium market still has growth potential due to the automotive industry, McKinsey & Company’s Benedikt Zeumer said at Fastmarkets’ International Aluminium Conference held in Athens, Greece.
The Shanghai copper cathode premium moved higher in the week to Tuesday September 24, with continued opportunities in the London-Shanghai arbitrage prompting increased market interest, while flat demand caps premiums in Europe and the United States.
Fastmarkets outlines some of the key topics likely to dominate discussions when participants of the battery raw materials and electric vehicle supply chain gathers in Amsterdam this week.
The lingering electricity restrictions in Inner Mongolia in China, which disrupted domestic silico-manganese production, failed to provide any support to the alloy price but dampened local alloy smelters’ manganese-ore purchasing appetite, market sources told Fastmarkets.
