This Morning in Metals: USITC requests $2.75M to assist in USMCA implementation

USMCA
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This morning in metals news: the United States International Trade Commission asked for an additional $2.75 million in its budget to help it toward implementation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA); the World Gold Council released its H1 2020 report; and U.S. beverage makers are grappling with an aluminum can shortage.

USITC requests additional funding

After a couple of years of negotiations, the USMCA finally went into effect July 1.
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As a result, the USITC has requested an additional $2.75 million in fiscal year 2020 funding to assist it in implementation of the new trade agreement.
“The USMCA, which entered into force on July 1, 2020, requires the Commission to investigate whether the U.S. long-haul trucking industry is materially harmed by an increase in cross-border trucking services provided by Mexican suppliers,” the USITC said in a release this week.

Gold outperforms other commodities

The World Gold Council released its H1 2020 report earlier this week, noting gold’s outperformance of other commodities in what has a been a year filled with volatility.
“Gold had a remarkable performance in the first half of 2020, increasing by 16.8% in US-dollar terms and significantly outperforming all other major asset classes (Chart 1),” the World Gold Council said in a release. “By the end of June, the LBMA Gold Price PM was trading close to US$1,770/oz, a level not seen since 2012, and gold prices were reaching record or near-record highs in all other major currencies (Table 1).”

U.S. beverage makers deal with aluminum can shortage

One consequence of the coronavirus pandemic for the beverage industry? A shortage of aluminum cans.
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As a result, beverage makers have alerted consumers that some of their favorite niche beverages might not be on store shelves for the time being.

“Aluminum cans are in very tight supply with so many people buying more multi-pack products to consume at home,” Coca-Cola spokesperson Ann Moore told USA Today this week.

According to the report, various can manufacturers have announced plans to build at least three new can manufacturing plants over the next 18 months.

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