This morning in metals news: U.S. Steel plans to restart another blast furnace at its Gary Works; imports of blooms, billets and slabs from Japan have seen a significant jump this year; and silver prices have surged to a seven-year high.
Fouad Egbaria
This Morning in Metals: Antofagasta Q2 copper production drops 8.4%
Despite challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, miner Antofagasta maintained its full-year 2020 copper guidance.
Global aluminum production in June reaches 5.27M tons
Global aluminum production in June increased slightly from the previous month on a daily average basis.
China’s automotive sales gain for third straight month, up 11.6% year over year in June
China’s June automotive sales marked a third straight month of year-over-year sales increases.
This Morning in Metals: BHP releases FY 2020 production results
This morning in metals news: miner BHP posted higher iron ore and copper output totals in FY 2020; miner Anglo American also released its own production results; the National Mining Association praised reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act.
U.S. steel sector’s capacity utilization rate continues to inch upward
The U.S. steel sector’s capacity utilization rate inched upward yet again last week.
This Morning in Metals: Rio Tinto releases Q2 production results
This morning in metals news: Rio Tinto released its second-quarter production results; steel industry groups want infrastructure to be added to the U.S.’s next stimulus bill; and reported plans to replace furnaces at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant have raised worries that thousands of jobs could be lost in the process.
U.S. housing start activity surges 17.3% in June
U.S. housing start activity bounced back in June.
Week in Review: July 2020 MMI report; silver prices; LME off-warrant stock
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, including coverage of silver prices, LME off-warrant stocks, cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries and more:
This Morning in Metals: USITC requests $2.75M to assist in USMCA implementation
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.