IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 5 key stories from October 22

Here are five Fastmarkets MB stories you might have missed on Tuesday October 22 that are worth another look.

Anglo American has raised the 2019 iron ore production guidance for its Minas Rio operations in Brazil while maintaining the one for its Kumba operations in South Africa.

Europe’s largest copper producer, Aurubis, has announced its annual copper cathode premium for 2020 at $96 per tonne, unchanged from last year’s level, the company confirmed to Fastmarkets on October 22.

Chinese vanadium exporters continued to lower offers amid minimal buying interest abroad, while European and US ferro-vanadium prices continued to suffer from lackluster consumer interest.

Around 15,000-30,000 tonnes of nickel cathode has been transferred from the Shanghai bonded zone to London Metal Exchange-registered warehouses in Southeast Asia since September amid attempts by market participants to avoid incurring steeper losses by importing the metal into China against prevailing discounts, sources told Fastmarkets.

The Chinese domestic silico-manganese price continued to fall during the week ended Friday October 18 on abundant alloy supply and declining ore prices.

What to read next
The publication of Fastmarkets’ Shanghai copper premiums on Monday December 23 were delayed because of a reporter error. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated.
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.