WEEK-IN-BRIEF: Ebola in West Africa; Glencore output; the battle over Al spreads; TK Met’s US expansion

What has been going on in metal markets over the past week? A review from the Metal Bulletin team

What has been going on in metal markets over the past week? A review from the Metal Bulletin team

What effect has the Ebola virus had on West Africa’s mining sector? Metal Bulletin’s Andrea Hotter asked the companies that have operations there. Read the round-up here

Metal Bulletin recently looked at the state of the industry across all the mining countries of West Africa, where there is significant bauxite, iron ore and manganese ore production. Click here for Metal Bulletin’s Fast Facts Africa

Want a quick glance at Glencore’s production results, which were released on August 13? See them here

For a fuller picture of zinc, copper, ferro-chrome and nickel production, take a look here

Higher metal prices and sufficient supply of zinc concentrates for the moment have driven up treatment charges for zinc. Here are the details

The aluminium cash-to-three-months contango on the London Metal Exchange widened last week, before tightening again. Metal Bulletin’s Jethro Wookey reviewed the battle that is going on in the aluminium spread

The US Midwest premium, the European premium and the Japanese premium are the three most widely-watched benchmarks for the physical aluminium market outside the LME price.

Premiums in the USA moved up by 50-75 cents per lb last week, as the market remained flat at elevated levels in Japan and Brazil: sellers feel strong enough not to sell, and buyers do not need to add to contracted volumes – yet.

Check the latest reports from the USABrazil and Japan

Russian separatists seized Privat Group’s Stakhanov ferro-alloys plant earlier this month. Privat will increase ferro-silicon production at Zaporozhye to compensate for production lost at Stakhanov. Find out more here

ThyssenKrupp Metallurgical Products is adding a ferro-alloys trading desk to its operations in the USA. Metal Bulletin has all the details. 

A close reading of Umicore’s results a couple of weeks ago revealed a joint venture that the Belgium-based speciality product company had done with China-based Vital Materials.

What does the deal mean for the indium market inside and outside China? A briefing here

And find out more here about the production – and a ready buyer for it

The London Metal Exchange published its second commitment of traders report. In which market did money managers cut long positions by 12%? Check our take on the data here

editorial@metalbulletin.com

What to read next
Copper’s long-term outlook is constrained by the industry’s limited ability to bring new supply online fast enough to meet rising demand, with permitting delays, higher capital costs and policy risks slowing project development, industry executives said at the FT Commodities Global Summit on Wednesday April 22.
Capital is flowing back into junior mining, but selectively. Investment is increasingly favouring development‑stage assets with clearer paths to production, supported by government funding and strategic partnerships. While demand for critical minerals underpins the cycle, early‑stage explorers continue to struggle for capital as investors prioritise discipline, ESG alignment and near‑term cash flow.
Copper in concentrate production from Ivanhoe Mines' Kamoa-Kakula complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fell to 61,906 tonnes in the first quarter, down by 54% from 133,120 tonnes a year earlier, with the company now evaluating local third-party concentrate purchases to advance the ramp-up of its on-site smelter, according to an April 13 production release as the market focused its attention on the impact of global sulfuric acid shortages during CESCO Week in Chile from April 13-17.
China's planned sulfuric acid export ban from May 1, historic lows for copper concentrates treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) and a fragmenting 2026 benchmark system dominated CESCO Week 2026 in Santiago from April 13-17.
The proposal would align the index more closely with physically traded volumes in the region, and enable it to adjust to evolving market conditions. This proposal follows an observed widening of the spread between trader and smelter purchase components of the index and is aligned with a majority of market feedback. Additionally, Fastmarkets seeks feedback […]
Until now, aluminium has been hard to move, not hard to find. Global aluminium supply had remained technically intact, even as output was curtailed in parts of the Gulf, inventory buffers were drawn down or repositioned, and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was severely disrupted.