This Morning in Metals: Russian Aluminum Giant Rusal to Get the Cold Shoulder?

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This morning in metals news, customers reportedly are set to avoid Rusal during a crucial upcoming industry gathering in Berlin, Tata Steel announces a new sustainable steelmaking procedure and NAFTA negotiations pick up again today after a long Wednesday night of talks.
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Cold Shoulder

According to a Reuters report, customers plan to avoid Rusal during an upcoming industry gathering in Berlin, during which firms lock up 2019 aluminum supply deals.
The Russian aluminum giant was hit with U.S. sanctions in April, which sent the aluminum market into shock and yielded skyrocketing prices.
Prices came back down when the U.S. Treasury Department extended the deadline for firms to unwind business with Rusal by Oct. 23.
However, according to the Reuters report, some customers aren’t optimistic that that sanctions will in fact be lifted.

Sustainable Steelmaking

Tata Steel on Thursday announced a new steelmaking process that it claims will cut carbon dioxide emissions stemming from the steelmaking process by half, the Economic Times reported.
The firm conducted testing at its Ijmuiden site in the Netherlands, according to the report.

NAFTA Talks Resume

NAFTA renegotiation efforts are set to continue today after what was reportedly a long night of talks on Wednesday.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently commented that “No NAFTA is better than a bad NAFTA deal.”
Meanwhile, on Saturday President Trump tweeted: “There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off…”
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The U.S. and Mexico have already reached an agreement in principle on certain provisions of NAFTA; following that, the U.S. and Canada picked up talks last week in an effort to bring the latter into the fold.

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