IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from September 6

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Friday September 6 that are worth another look.

There was an air of optimism among copper participants attending a conference in the Chinese city of Qiqihar on Thursday September 5, with many there telling Fastmarkets they had heard deals and offers for copper cathode at higher levels than in recent weeks due to improving market fundamentals.

Albania-based chrome ore miner and high carbon ferro-chrome smelter Albchrome has extended the maintenance period of two of its furnaces for an additional three months, the company said on September 6.

China’s Hebei Steel, the country’s second largest steel mill, has released its purchase price for silico-manganese at 7,700 yuan ($1,078) per tonne for September delivery, down by 150 yuan per tonne from its August tender price, market sources told Fastmarkets.

Latin America’s apparent steel consumption fell by 3% year on year in the first half of 2019, to 33.67 million tonnes, mainly due to lower performance in Mexico and Argentina.

China’s domestic spot battery-grade lithium carbonate price narrowed downward in the week ended September 6 with most deals concluded at lower end of Fastmarkets’ published range, while those few deals struck at higher rates were done so on credit terms.

What to read next
Fastmarkets proposes to amend the frequency of the publication of several US base metal price assessments to a monthly basis, including MB-PB-0006 lead 99.97% ingot premium, ddp Midwest US; MB-SN-0036 tin 99.85% premium, in-whs Baltimore; MB-SN-0011 tin 99.85% premium, ddp Midwest US; MB-NI-0240 nickel 4x4 cathode premium, delivered Midwest US and MB-NI-0241 nickel briquette premium, delivered Midwest US.
The news that President-elect Donald Trump is considering additional tariffs on goods from China as well as on all products from US trading partners Canada and Mexico has spurred alarm in the US aluminium market at a time that is usually known to be calm.
Unlike most other commodities, cobalt is primarily a by-product – with 60% derived from copper and 38% from nickel – so how will changes in those markets change the picture for cobalt in the coming months following a year of price weakness and oversupply in 2024?
Copper recycling will become increasingly critical as the world transitions to cleaner energy systems, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a special report published early this week.
Fastmarkets proposes to lower the frequency of its assessments for MB-AL-0389 aluminium low-carbon differential P1020A, US Midwest and MB-AL-0390 aluminium low-carbon differential value-added product US Midwest. Fastmarkets also proposes to extend the timing window of these same assessments to include any transaction data concluded within up to 18 months.
Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on its non-ferrous and industrial minerals methodologies, via an open consultation process between October 8 and November 6, 2024. This consultation was done as part of our published annual methodology review process.