Week in Review: Chinese steel exports rise; USW, ATI reach deal; import prices rise

Before we head into the weekend, let’s take a look back at the week that was and some of the metals storylines here on MetalMiner:
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Week of July 12-16 (Chinese steel exports, CPI rises, cobalt recovers and much more)

• Copper prices have consolidated, Maria Rosa Gobitz explained in this month’s Copper MMI report.
• Stuart Burns overviewed developments in China’s steel sector.
• U.S. construction spending fell from April to May, the Census Bureau reported.
• General Motors reported a Q2 sales rise of 5.2% in China.
• European aluminum producers argue the E.U.’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism will hurt them.
• The United Steelworkers Union and Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) reached a tentative deal July 2 to end a three-month strike, a deal they went on to officially ratify July 13.
• A shipment of mixed rare earth carbonate is the first in a new E.U.-U.S. rare earths supply chain.
• The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose by 0.9% in June.
• Steel prices remain elevated.
• Chinese steel prices have recovered after dropping on the heels from Beijing’s warnings to speculators.
• ArcelorMittal aims to make its Sestao plant in Spain the “world’s first full-scale zero carbon-emissions steel plant.”
• Gold prices took a fall in June but have bounced back in the first half of July.
• After plunging through the first two-thirds of the second quarter, cobalt prices turned around in June and into July.
• U.S. import prices rose by 1.0% in June.
• Meanwhile, much of the steelmaking capacity in the Chinese steelmaking hub of Tangshan is reportedly back online after earlier restrictions, Sohrab Darabshaw writes.
• Lastly, Chinese steel exports rose in June compared with the previous month.

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