Xiangtan Electrochemical Technology announced that its subsidiary, Jingxi Lijin New Materials Co., Ltd., has basically completed construction of the main part of its 20,000 mt/year spinel-type LMO battery material project.

China’s imports of nickel ore and concentrate rebounded on the month in May, rising 24.83% from a month ago to 1.68 million mt, as deliveries resumed from the top supplier the Philippines as the country eased lockdown measures imposed to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

About 1.2 million mt of manganese ore production in South Africa is expected to be affected by the 21-day nationwide lockdown aimed at containing the coronavirus, a local trader estimates. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the three-week lockdown on Monday March 23, including closing mines, starting from midnight Thursday March 26.

Prices of spot manganese have not received significant support from the resumption of downstream demand and have extended their slide this week. SMM expects the prices will remain weak with pressure from elevated inventories of #200 cold- and hot- rolled stainless steel.

China's imports of cobalt raw materials, including ore and intermediate products, came in at 8,000 mt in January, down 25% from December, showed the latest customs data. Imports in 2019 were 24%...

Daily output of electrolytic manganese across the region is expected to recover to 100-200 mt in the early stage of the resumption

China took 61.28 million mt of iron ore and concentrate from Australia in December, up 14.1% YoY

Chinese traders stepped up their purchases before the Indonesian mineral export ban took effect in 2020

This will offer strong support to near-term prices of seaborne iron ore

The imports in December exceeded that in November to the highest monthly level since September 2018