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Four Liechtenstein families found dead
Police said on Thursday that the three Liechtensteiners who were found dead in the past week belonged to the same family. The local police confirmed that the body of a 41 year old man was found on Wednesday, on the Swiss bank of the Rhine near Vaduz. The police reported that he was a senior employee from the municipality of Triesen south of Vaduz who had been suspended just a few weeks earlier because of?irregularities in the accounting. Later, police?found in an apartment of Vaduz the bodies of two women aged 45 and 68, and a man, 73. The police said that these were the parents and sister of the municipality worker. The four deaths are being investigated by autopsies. (Written by Dave Graham, edited by Andrew Cawthorne).
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Ukraine uses drones Storm Shadows to strike Russian oil and gas facilities
Ukraine has launched British Storm Shadow missiles as well as its own?domestically-produced long-range drones in order to target several Russian oil and?gas?facilities. Ukraine used British-made missiles in the past to strike Russian industrial targets, which it claims help Moscow's war. The Ukrainian General Staff stated that the air force had used Storm Shadow missiles to attack the Novoshakhtinsk refinery located in the Rostov Region of Russia. "Multiple explosions have been recorded." On Thursday, the General Staff announced on Telegram that the target was "hit". The refinery was said to be one of the largest oil suppliers in southern Russia, and supplied diesel and jet fuel to Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. The SBU, Ukraine's security service, said that long-range drones made locally?hit oil products tanks in the Russian Port of Temryuk located in the Krasnodar Region and a gas processing plant at Orenburg on the southwest coast of Russia. Orenburg, the largest gas processing facility in the world is located approximately 1,400 km (870 miles) away from the Ukrainian border. After the drone attack, two tanks of oil products caught fire in the southern port of Temryuk. Authorities at the Krasnodar Operational Headquarters said on the Telegram App that flames covered a surface area of approximately 2,000 square meters. Both Kyiv, and Moscow, have increased their drone and missile strikes on energy facilities as the Russian war in Ukraine nears its fourth anniversary. Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have not yielded any tangible results. Kyiv has increased its attacks on Russia's refineries and energy infrastructure in order to reduce Moscow's 'oil revenues', which are a major source of funding its war effort. Ukrainian General Staff said that Ukrainian troops also hit a military airport in the Russian town of Maikop, in the Republic of Adygea region of the North Caucasus.
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Shanghai copper hovers just below the record high, as Chinese demand increases and dollar weakens
Shanghai copper hovered just below a new record high on Thursday as Chinese demand increased and the U.S. Dollar weakened. The most active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange ended daytime trading up by 1% at 96,210 Yuan ($13732.51) per metric ton. Shanghai copper reached an all-time record of 96.750 yuan per ton on Tuesday, while?London's benchmark also hit a high at $12.282, close to the $12.300 mark. The London market is closed over the Christmas Holiday. The rise in copper was due to a surge in Chinese demand as the holiday season approached. Yangshan Copper?premium The price of seaborne copper units has been rising since the beginning of December. It reached its highest level since late September, $55 per ton. Prices had been hovering around $40 since mid-October. China's top copper smelters, in a Thursday meeting, decided to not set guidance on the processing fees of copper?concentrates for the first quarter 2026, due to historically low prices and a shortage of raw materials. Investors bet on further interest rate cuts by the U.S. Fed Reserve next year to continue the?weakening of the U.S. Dollar. Aluminium and lead were also up in the SHFE base metals. Zinc fell 0.56%. Nickel's six-day rally ended with a decline of 1.22%. Tin lost 1.18%.
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Japan's lobby leader says China's export licenses will not reduce excessive steel exports
Tadashi Imai, Chairman of the Japan Iron and Steel Federation, said that China's proposed export-licence requirements would not be effective in curbing export volumes or supporting a recovery in prices. China, the world's biggest steel producer, will implement a licensing system in 2026 for export regulation. This is because robust shipments of metal have fueled a protectionist backlash around the globe. Imai said at a press conference that the permits are aimed at controlling quality. China's steel exports have become a global concern. Japan is among the countries that criticize Chinese firms for receiving government subsidies which?encourage exports at low prices and overproduction. The Federation forecast that Japan's domestic demand for steel from the construction and manufacturing industries will remain flat during the fiscal year beginning in April. Crude steel production is expected to remain unchanged. The Japanese trade and industry ministry forecast this week that Japan’s crude steel production for the current fiscal year will fall by 3.2% to 80.33 millions metric tons, which is the lowest since fiscal 1967. Imai, also the president of Nippon Steel and the CEO of the company, was asked about the impact that U.S. Tariffs will have on his company. He said the tariffs could cut the profit by about 20 billion yen (130 million dollars) this fiscal year, while exports to the U.S. would be halved from the previous year. He said that the total impact of the tariff, which included indirect effects such as the 15% on automobiles was less than what he had expected.
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Dalian iron ore continues to benefit Beijing's home buyers
The prices of Dalian Iron Ore Futures rose for the?second straight session on Thursday as Beijing relaxed its restrictions on domestic?buying. The day-traded price of the most traded?iron ore? contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange closed 0.58% higher, at 778.5 Yuan ($111.10) per metric ton. Singapore's market will be closed on Christmas Day, Thursday. Beijing's municipal officials further relaxed curbs on home purchase on Wednesday, lowering the qualification thresholds for home buyers, as part of the latest effort to?boost the demand amid the worsening prices of homes in the Chinese capital. Chinese officials pledged earlier this week that they would step up their efforts to stabilize the property market by 2026. Market participants were watching to see if other large cities would ease up home buying further. China's property industry, which used to be its largest steel consumer, has suffered a steady decline since mid-2021, with falling home prices and shrinking sales. The property market slump has had a negative impact on steel consumption, but robust exports and growing demand in the manufacturing sector have helped to offset some of the decline. Analysts also said that the expectation of steel mills booking more seaborne cargoes during the Lunar New Year holiday, in February, to "meet their consumption needs" was another factor supporting the prices. The price gains were curtailed by high portside inventories of?iron ore and seasonal slack demand for steel. The coking coal, the coke and other ingredients used in steelmaking are largely unchanged. The benchmark steel prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange are mixed. The rebar and hot-rolled coil grew by 0.03%. Wire rod jumped 1.21%, while stainless steel fell 0.08%. ($1 = 7.0074 Chinese Yuan) (Reporting and editing by Amy Lv, Ryan Woo and William Mallard).
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Sources: China's smelter group does not set copper TC/RC guidance for Q1
Sources said that the top copper smelters of China did not set a guideline for copper concentrate processing fees for the first quarter 2026. This is the fourth time in a row the group has refused to do so, as feedstock shortages have pushed charges to new lows. Two sources familiar with the discussion confirmed that the decision was taken at a quarterly China Smelters Purchase Team meeting. The CSPT is a group of sixteen leading smelters whose advice is often used as a standard in spot concentrate transactions. When concentrate supplies are tight, treatment and refining fees (TC/RCs), which miners pay to smelters in order to refine copper concentrates, tends to fall. Antofagasta, a Chinese copper-smelter and the World Bank reached an agreement on 2026 TC/RCs of $0 per metric ton or 0 cents a pound. This was the lowest price ever negotiated in annual negotiations. A source familiar with the situation said that Antofagasta had reached an agreement with its Chinese clients to set annual TC/RCs equal to zero. The CSPT did not set a benchmark for the previous three quarters either, because China's copper smelters were struggling with negative charges on the spot market. This meant that smelters had to pay miners in order to?process the concentrate. CSPT members agreed last month to reduce 2026 production by more than 10% in order to offset falling processing fees, after China's Nonferrous Metals Industry Association stated that it was "firmly against" zero and -negative processing charges. China is studying ways to control its ever-expanding capacity to smelt copper and to counter negative TC/RCs. Copper concentrate is expected to'remain tight' next year due to mine disruptions. This includes the suspension of Freeport’s flagship Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia.
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Shanghai copper hovers just below the record high, as Chinese demand increases and dollar weakens
Shanghai copper was below its record high Thursday, as the Chinese demand increased and the U.S. dollar weakened. dollar weakened. As of 0330 GMT, the most active copper contract on?the Shanghai Futures Exchange increased 0.40%, to 95,640 Yuan ($13.651.55) per metric ton. Shanghai copper reached an all-time record of 96.750 yuan?a ton, and the London benchmark?also hit a high at $12.282, which is near the $12.300 mark. The London market is closed over the Christmas Holiday. The rise in copper was due to a rise in Chinese demand as we approach the holiday season. Yangshan Copper Premium The price of, which measures Chinese demand for seaborne units of copper, has been rising since the beginning of December. It is now at its highest level since late September, $55 per ton. Investors bet on further interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve in 2013, leading to continued weakness of the?U.S. dollar. dollar. Aluminium and lead were the only two metals that changed little in SHFE. Zinc?dropped by 0.75%. Nickel's six-day rally ended with a decline of 1.79%. Tin lost 1.48%. (1 Chinese Yuan = 7.0058 Renminbi)
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Dalian iron ore continues to benefit Beijing's home buyers
The prices of Dalian Iron Ore Futures rose for the second consecutive session on Thursday, as further relaxations in Beijing on home purchases boosted sentiment. As of 0251 GMT, the most-traded contract for iron ore on?China's Dalian Commodity Exchange(DCE) increased 0.26% to $776 yuan (US$110.76) per metric ton. Singapore's market will be closed on Christmas Day, Thursday. Beijing's municipal officials further relaxed curbs on home purchase on Wednesday by lowering the threshold of home-buying qualification, in their latest effort to boost demand amid worsening prices for homes in the Chinese capital. This came after Chinese officials?promised earlier this week to increase efforts to stabilize the property market by 2026. Participants in the market were watching to see if other large cities would ease home buying even further. Since mid-2021, China's property sector has suffered a steady decline, with falling home prices and shrinking sales. The protracted downturn in the property market has had a negative impact on steel consumption. However, robust exports and a growing demand for manufacturing products have helped offset some of the decline. Analysts said that the expectation of steel mills booking more seaborne cargoes in order to meet their consumption needs over the Lunar New Year holiday, which is February, also supported the price of the main?steel making ingredient. The price increase was tempered by a?high iron ore stockpile at the port and a seasonally low steel demand. The coking coal, as well as other ingredients used in steelmaking, remained largely unchanged. The Shanghai Futures Exchange has seen a rise in the majority of steel benchmarks. Rebar gained 0.26%; hot-rolled coil gained 0.24%; wire rod increased 0.66% and stainless steel fell 0.58%. $1 = 7,0060 Chinese Yuan (Reporting and editing by Amy Lv, Ryan Woo)
Andy Home: Congo conflict double trouble for the global tin industry
Alphamin Resources' decision suspending operations at the Bisie Tin Mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo highlights the fragility of the global tin supply chain.
As the M23 rebels advance deeper into Congo's mineral-rich Kivu Provinces, one of the largest tin mining operations in the world is returning to Myanmar after a long absence.
Tin's supply volatility is once again generating price volatility. On the news, London Metal Exchange's three-month tin soared 11.5% and reached a three-year high price of $37100 per metric tonne.
The Congo conflict is a serious problem for the global market. Not only are units being lost, but also the transparency of the artisanal production in the region.
SUPPLY-CHAIN INFLUENCE
The Bisie mine produced around 17,300 tonnes of contained tin in the past year. This represents about 6% of the global mine supply.
Alphamin Resources is ramping up production at what was formerly an artisanal mining site. The company aims to produce 20,000 tons of ore this year before suspending operations.
It has been a major supplier of raw materials to China's smelters since August 2023, when the Man Maw Mine in Myanmar was suspended. Wa State authorities, who control Man Maw, have opened the process of issuing new mining licenses to signal its imminent restart.
It will take months to resume operations after such a lengthy closure, and the loss of Bisie at the same time compounds China's immediate raw material challenge.
China's refined-tin production is remarkably resilient, despite the loss in feed from Man Maw. According to the International Tin Association, in 2024 national output increased by 4.6% on an annual basis.
The ITA attributed the growth to an unprecedented use of scrap that fueled a 14.9% increase in secondary production year-over-year, as well as the reduction of concentrates stock.
Shanghai Metal Market, a local data provider, describes historically low conversion rates as a result of the reduced inventories.
The market's reaction to the suspension of Bisie suggests that it expects an impact on the world's biggest producer of refined Tin.
Transparency is lost
Alphamin's move to evacuate non-essential personnel from Bisie is a sign that the M23 rebels have advanced beyond the city of Goma, which they captured on the eastern border of the Congo.
By March 12, the insurgents had reached a distance of 125 km from the mine in the Walikale District of North Kivu.
The group is moving through a region rich in minerals, where Bisie is the sole official tin producer. The rest of Congo's production is produced by artisanal cooperatives.
According to the Congo Ministry of Mines, Alphamin exports 27,000 tons and the unofficial sector, 16,000 tons. Of these, 3,300 tons are from North Kivu and South Kivu.
Kivu has been used as a test bed for years to integrate responsible artisanal production in the global supply chains, not only for tin, but also tantalum and tungsten. ITSCi is the organisation that is responsible for ensuring compliance with OECD conflict mineral rules. ITSCi was born out of the ITA, and now is backed jointly by the Tantalum Niobium International Studies Centre. ITSCi, according to a report dated February 28, had suspended certain activities like inspecting sites and tagging the production in "some areas but not all" of North Kivu and South Kivu Provinces.
It is difficult to tell what is going on in the unofficial industry, assuming that work continues at all. This raises the risk that tin from an expanding conflict zone could be illegally exported into the official supply chain.
REPUTATIONAL RISK
This would be a blow to the years of effort spent convincing end users such as Apple Inc. that minerals from Congo can be produced responsibly, even in the artisanal industry. The ITSCi program is not without critics. It is at the centre of a lawsuit filed by the Congolese Government against Apple subsidiaries located in France and Belgium.
The metal of the future, tin, is at risk of regaining the problematic conflict mineral label of the past if there are no checks on the amount of tin produced or where it goes in the unofficial sector of the Kivu Region.
The more M23 rebels advance into the Kivu region the greater the risk for the market and its reputation. The M23 rebels' withdrawal at the last minute from negotiations with the government indicates that they have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
These are the opinions of the columnist, an author for.
(source: Reuters)