The operating rates of copper rod plants using copper scrap were 52.09% between May 8 and May 12, a surge of 9.38 percentage points from a week earlier, according to SMM survey of 15 plants with a capacity of 1.48 million mt/year). During Labour Day holidays, some copper rod plants using copper scrap as raw materials were forced to shut down due to the difficulty of purchasing raw materials. But they did not suspend purchasing raw materials during and after the holidays. Adequate raw materials enabled these plants to resume production last week, growing the average operating rate.

SHANGHAI, May 15 (SMM) - Transactions remained thin in nickel sulphate market as ternary precursor plants still restocked only as needed.

SHANGHAI, May 15 (SMM) - The prices of lithium carbonate extended gains last week.

SHANGHAI, May 15 (SMM) - With alumina and coal prices showing no signs of stabilising, aluminium costs will still have room to fall in the short term.

The decline in operating rates and scrap consumption by EAF mills in April was caused by the plunging construction steel prices.

The average daily steel scrap arrival across 110 steel mills surveyed by SMM stood at 244,000 mt in April, down 2.2% from 249,400 mt in March.

SHANGHAI, May 9 (SMM) - According to SMM survey, the output of refined bismuth in China was 2,621 mt in April, up 0.06% MoM.

On April 27, the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Polishing Materials Branch of the China Rare Earth Industry Association and the China Rare Earth Polishing Materials Industry Development Forum were successfully held.

The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) continued its streak of rate hikes for more than a year, raising the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a target range of 5-5.25%.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently released an economic outlook report for the Asia-Pacific region, predicting that the economic growth rate of the Asia-Pacific region will be 4.6% in 2023, higher than the growth rate of 3.8% in 2022.