A sustained weakness in the United States’ Midwest aluminium premium and increased barge freight rates pushed the estimated arbitrage between Southeast Asian warehouses and the United States to an 18-month low.
Zinc premiums in Northern Europe have risen with falling zinc prices, while spreads on the London Metal Exchange went into backwardation. Meanwhile, lead premiums were broadly flat with many market participants attending an industry conference.
Atlantic Copper, Europe’s third largest copper smelter and refinery, has delayed intake of copper concentrates for up to two weeks, with primary smelting reduced to 40% capacity after an outage at its electric furnace, sources at the company told Fastmarkets.
After a period of correction that lasted for about three weeks, the price for Chinese cobalt metal has been given fresh strength by rising raw materials costs and tightened spot supply.
Flat steel producer ArcelorMittal Italia will “continue operations beyond” September 6 at its plant in Taranto, Italy, despite the country’s adoption of the so-called Crescita Decree law, the company said on September 4.
