Good morning from Metal Bulletin’s office in Singapore as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Tuesday March 6.

Arbitrage for copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel imported into China on Wednesday May 9*

Swedish miner and smelter Boliden will launch a standalone nickel smelting business to buy concentrates externally and sell nickel matte, as it moves away from its existing tolling model, the company said on Monday November 10.

Zinc prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange outperformed with an increase of 1.1% during morning trading on Thursday April 4 amid optimism over US-China trade talks and the metal’s solid fundamentals.

Barring those for zinc, base metals prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were all up during morning trading on Friday July 19 following a retreat in the dollar index overnight.

The three-month nickel price on the London Metal Exchange was higher during morning trading on Thursday October 24, climbing just under 1% amid moderate turnover, while a similar uptick in zinc saw the galvanizing metal close in on nearby resistance levels.

Due to a technical error, Metal Bulletin’s Shanghai-London physical arbitrage calculations for aluminium and zinc were published incorrectly on Monday September 10.

Metal Bulletin today launches two zinc spot concentrate treatment charge (TC) assessments, delivered to North China and delivered to South China.

While Chinese New Year may have left some markets deflated, it was another busy week for Metal Bulletin’s news teams across the rest of the world.

The first deals for special high-grade zinc supply in 2019 in Europe point to a decline in annual zinc premiums compared with this year's levels, but Nyrstar's financial troubles are complicating negotiations and raising concerns that supply may turn out to be tighter than anticipated.