IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from September 17

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday September 17 that are worth another look.

Fastmarkets looks at the key takeaways from the seventh Fastmarkets Asian Nickel conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, on September 11-12, from who will fill the Asian supply gap from 2020 to emerging demand for nickel from the electric vehicle battery sector.

Import prices for steel slab in Southeast Asia and East Asia continued to decline over the past week because of weakness in the downstream flat steel markets caused by sluggish demand and lower prices, market sources said.

The European ferro-vanadium market continued its downtrend last week amid thin spot buying and prevailing bearish sentiment.

Rising oil prices driven by shutdowns in Saudi Arabia have had a negative effect on outright copper prices, analysts told Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 17.

Low-grade manganese ore cif prices fell over the past week, with some buyers holding back from purchasing in the hope of lower prices.

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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.