This Morning in Metals: USTR to Consider Extension of Tariff Exclusions on $34B of Chinese Goods

USTR to Consider Tariff Exclusion Extensions

Last December, the USTR granted tariff exclusions on $34 billion worth of imports from China.
With those exclusions set to expire later this year, the USTR will soon initiate a process to consider whether or not to extend them.
“The United States Trade Representative (USTR) will commence on November 1, 2019 a process for considering extending for up to twelve months certain exclusions from additional tariffs on Chinese imports that were granted last December and are set to expire on December 28, 2019,” the USTR said.
“In a Federal Register notice to be published this week, USTR will provide details on the process for submitting comments favoring or opposing specified tariff exclusions. The period for submitting comments will run from November 1, 2019 to November 30, 2019.”

GFG Alliance Eyes Carbon-Neutral Future

The GFG Alliance, which includes Liberty House steel plants around the world, is aiming to consolidate its steel production into a single global company: the Liberty Steel Group.
“A single global company with 18 million tonnes of rolled steel capacity annually is to be launched through a consolidation of GFG Alliance’s steel businesses, with an ambition to lead the industry towards a carbon-neutral future,” Liberty House announced Tuesday.
“The family-owned alliance led by Sanjeev Gupta today announces that Liberty Steel Group, which altogether employs 30,000 people in 10 countries, will be incorporated by the end of this year through a merger of GFG’s upstream and downstream steel manufacturing, mining and distribution businesses around the world.”
The new group will aim to be carbon-neutral by 2030.
“At the heart of the group’s mission will be an ambition to build on GFG’s existing GREENSTEEL strategy to aim for net carbon neutral status by 2030 – placing Liberty Steel Group on a pathway to become the first carbon neutral steel company in the world,” the company said. “This will include exploration of the best use of new technologies such as hydrogen generated from renewable power to produce steel.”

LME Copper Rises

The LME three-month copper price, after approaching MetalMiner’s short-term support price in early October, has since made incremental gains throughout the month.
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As of Monday, the LME three-month price rose to $5,910/mt, marking a 2.91% month-over-month increase, according to MetalMiner IndX data.