[SMM Express] Eastern Platinum's Crocodile River Mine has completed a rare turnaround among South African PGM juniors, with chrome concentrate output climbing to 82,120 tonnes in 2025, up 353% from 18,118 tonnes in 2024. The gain came alongside a 59% rise in PGM concentrate production to 5,146 tonnes, lifting mine operating income to US$1.7 million, up 113% year-on-year, and narrowing the fourth-quarter net loss by almost 40%. The recovery reflects Eastplats' shift from a tailings-retreatment chrome operation into a growing metallurgical chrome and PGM concentrate producer, following the 2024 commissioning of a processing facility handling UG2 run-of-mine ore from the Zandfontein underground section. That momentum carried into Q1 2026, with chrome concentrate volumes up 71.7% year-on-year, even as PGM concentrate sales to Impala Platinum continued to account for the bulk of revenue. The chrome ramp-up gives Eastplats a growing secondary exposure to stainless steel raw material markets alongside its core PGM business.

Canada Nickel's Crawford nickel project in Ontario has received federal approval following the completion of Canada's impact assessment process, clearing a key regulatory milestone for project development. The Crawford project is expected to become one of the world's largest nickel operations and is the first mining project approved under Canada's 2019 Impact Assessment Act. The company estimates the mine will have a 41-year operating life and play a strategic role in supplying low-carbon nickel for the electric vehicle battery and stainless steel industries.

​​​​​​​Falling nickel benchmarks, a fragmented overseas supply base and a Malaysian enforcement crackdown lift India's stainless scrap imports 11.4% while pushing the average import price down 6.6% in the 12 months to February 2026

Outokumpu's chief financial officer Marc-Simon Schaar said on July 30 that while EU trade measures are lifting demand for European steel production, higher costs for scrap, freight and fuel are consuming the improvement. The Finnish stainless producer's European business posted adjusted core profit of €17 million in the second quarter, recovering from a €13 million loss in Q1 but barely above the €16 million earned a year earlier. Schaar said stronger demand for local output has also sharply raised demand for scrap, the main raw material for European mills, while subdued end-user demand has cut scrap generation and pushed raw material prices above last year's levels. State aid worth roughly €35-40 million a year to offset EU emissions trading costs has also ended.

Jindal Stainless, India's largest stainless producer, said its Jajpur plant in Odisha won three awards at the 2026 Total Quality Management Convention held by the Quality Circle Forum of India's Pune chapter. Two gold awards went to projects optimising manganese recovery in 200-series melting at the AOD shop and reducing RIS defects in 300-series at the hot strip mill, with a silver award for reducing trapezoidity in grades 304 and EN 1.4307. The convention drew 132 teams from close to 30 companies. Jindal held annual melting capacity of 4.2 million tonnes as of March 2026 across 16 facilities globally, including Spain and Indonesia, on FY26 turnover of ₹429.55 billion, about $4.86 billion.

Luxembourg-based stainless producer Aperam told its Q2 2026 earnings call that its European business was already earning about €75 a tonne before the EU's new trade defence measures took effect, and that it welcomes the rules as strengthening the European steel community rather than as a disruption — a framing that differs from peers attributing recovery chiefly to import curbs, with Aperam stressing its diversified portfolio instead. Adjusted EBITDA was €130 million in Q2. The company guides Q3 adjusted EBITDA and shipments lower on seasonality and the absence of valuation effects, with net financial debt flat in Q3 and falling by year-end. Full-year capex guidance is about €200 million, back-end loaded, with the base dividend held at €2.00 a share.