Daily crude steel output at CISA key mills rose 3.4% in mid-Oct

This week, ferrous metals drifted lower overall, with iron ore and rebar leading the decline and hitting new stage lows. The core driver of the downturn was a confluence of multiple bearish factors: First, the Politburo meeting ended, and the outcome fell short of market expectations, causing sentiment support to collapse. Second, cost support collapsed in a stepwise manner. The second round of coke price cuts was quickly implemented, and the market widely expects a third round to come. Combined with hot metal output falling to a trough, global iron ore shipments staying high, and port inventories being ample, the decline in raw material prices allowed the negative feedback loop to transmit smoothly. Finally, end-use demand was seasonally sluggish, with high temperatures and rainfall dampening construction. Total inventories of ferrous metals continued to accumulate, spot transactions were sluggish, and the supply-demand imbalance persisted......

President Donald Trump has signed a presidential determination granting the U.S. Commerce Department authority under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to restrict exports of industrial waste containing recoverable critical minerals and materials (CMMs). The executive measure targets end-of-life products—including spent lithium-ion batteries and permanent magnets, that hold significant reclaimable volumes of vital strategic elements. By invoking Cold War-era DPA powers, the White House aims to prevent secondary scrap feedstock from leaving the country, bolstering domestic processing capacity and curbing reliance on foreign supply chains, particularly China. Rather than relying solely on greenfield mining projects with extended lead times, the policy effectively establishes domestic industrial scrap as an immediately accessible strategic reserve. The move is expected to support U.S. recycling infrastructure, secure essential raw materials for defense manufacturing and high-tech sectors, and keep critical processing value added within American borders.