The US withdraw from the Paris climate agreement announced by president Donald Trump took no-one by surprise on Thursday. While it will mean that one of the world’s biggest polluters is leaving the agreement, rare earth and minor metals producers will be watching the reaction of the other major economies for their reaction.
Many strategic metals are key to the fight against global warming and any roll-back in environmental commitments will have an impact on the demand for these metals. China for its part is claiming a more global leadership role and Europe is standing steadfast to its commitments to the Paris deal.
Chinese rare earth prices remained stable this week on limited activity owing to a public holiday from 28-30 May. Buying interest has also been low as consumers have adequate stock levels with no strong demand for spot material and limited signs of national stockpile buying despite market talk.
Prices for cobalt alloy grade material in Europe rose in line with earlier chemical grade gains but the European selenium market fell on lower demand and manganese prices fell in response to lower prices on the Chinese market. Low demand there and increased availability weighed on the selenium, titanium, gallium and manganese markets. But zirconium sand prices rose as output reductions by miners outside of China limited supply.
On ferro-alloys, continued lack of spot buying interest and increased alloy availability weighed on the ferro-silicon and high-carbon ferro-chrome markets. Increased spot buying interest in the US from steel mills and lower alloy availability lifted the ferro-chrome and ferro-manganese markets. But other alloy prices were unchanged amid thin spot market trading.
The Chinese spot market activity remained limited, with most participants awaiting tenders from steelmakers before committing to …
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Source: Metal Pages
WEEK IN REVIEW: US climate pull out concerns metals
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