Malaysia has launched an antidumping investigation into flat-rolled products of non-alloy steel plated or coated with aluminum and zinc originating in or imported from China, South Korea and Vietnam.

This is in response to the central government’s call to build "new infrastructure" projects to counter the economic fallout due to the coronavirus and boost the country's economy in the long term. New infrastructure, different from traditional infrastructure construction such as railways, roads, and airports, can be understood as new public facilities serving the needs of new industrialisation. 

Canadian miner Teck Resources and smelter Korea Zinc have reportedly agreed zinc concentrate treatment charges (TCs) for 2020 supply at $299.75/dmt, the highest since 2008. The deal, which has zero price participation, marks a substantial increase from $245/dmt for 2019. The two major players in the metals sector had been widely expected to set annual zinc concentrate TC for 2020 at $300/dmt.  

Alphamin Resources (TSXV:AFM) (JSE: APH) has upped the ante at its Mpama tin complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Q1 of 2020 with a new mining method at Mpama North, plans to initiate exploration drilling at its adjacent Mpama South deposit, and a strong focus on increasing production and free cash generation.

While a handful of exploration companies in Africa are still looking to get a foot in the door, the tin (Sn) processing plant at Alphamin Resources’ (TSXV:AFM) (JSE: APH) Bisie mine is close to running at full tilt.

Operating rates across Chinese lead-acid battery plants extended their increase this week as producers in Hubei, the epicentre of the COVID-19, accelerated their resumption of production lines. An SMM survey showed that operating rate across lead-acid battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hebei provinces averaged 65.24% in the week ended March 27, up 4.39 percentage points from last week. Chinese lead-acid battery plants in areas besides Hubei maintained stable operations this week. 

Nickel ore inventories across all Chinese ports decreased 400,000 wmt in the week ended March 27 to 10.26 million wmt, compared to a decline of 670,000 wmt in the previous week, showed SMM data.

SMM data showed that iron ore stocks across 35 Chinese ports totalled 107.77 million mt as of March 27, down 1.57 million mt from a week ago and 27.98 million mt lower than a year ago.

Social inventories of lead ingots in China continued to fall this week, as downstream consumers kicked off a new round of long-term contracted procurement. SMM data showed that lead social stocks across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin decreased about 7,800 mt in the week ended March 27 to 17,900 mt.

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on March 27, 2020