Essen, UK

01With the increase of copper mines in Peru, Mitsubishi is expanding its copper trading business in Europe

According to foreign media and insiders, the Trade Department of Mitsubishi RTM is expanding its copper trade business in Europe to prepare for receiving concentrate from new mines in Peru. Mitsubishi has hired former Trafigura group's Blanco buhavac as the chief trader of European base metals. Later this year, Mitsubishi will begin to receive copper concentrate from the contract related to its 40% equity interest in quellaveco, a Peruvian mine developed by Anglo American. This forced the company to expand its focus beyond refined metals and its Asian customer base. According to the prediction of Anglo American resources group, quellaveco expects to produce about 120000-160000 tons of copper concentrate by 2022. Once fully increased, it will increase to 300000 tons per year.

02The progress of the Russia Ukraine peace talks triggered the rise of the stock market and credit bonds, and the strategists of Damascus said it was only a flash in the pan

① Srikanth sankaran, head of U.S. and European credit bond strategy at Morgan Stanley, said that the optimism brought about by the progress of the Russian Ukrainian ceasefire negotiations boosted the stock market and credit bond market, but this was only a temporary phenomenon.

② "The market focus will definitely return to the hawkish stance of the central bank," sankaran said in an interview on Tuesday. He said that as the market began to take into account the possible range of future interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, the market rally "may subside in the short term. From the perspective of the risk market, I think there are still some problems to be solved".

③ A key indicator to measure the credit risk of American enterprises fell for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.

④ Earlier, a survey by Bank of America showed that at a time when inflation, geopolitics and economic prospects were increasingly worrying, credit bond investors were the most bearish on junk bonds since 2008.

⑤ Investors are most worried about inflation. Of the 116 investors surveyed, most believed that the war between Russia and Ukraine would not end soon. Rising interest rates are also one of the concerns, and the rest include oil prices and recession/deflation.

03The export price of Russian steel products fell further, and most overseas buyers began to give up Russian resources

According to Mysteel, with the escalation of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, as of March 28, affected by currency sanctions and delivery risks, the export price of Russian steel products fell further, and most overseas buyers began to give up Russian resources. According to a buyer from Egypt, at present, global buyers try to avoid products from Russia to avoid risks. In the case of export orders continued to slump, steel prices in Russia may continue to fall.

04Sk Hynix is considering to jointly acquire arm, a British chip manufacturer, through a consortium

Park Zhenghao, CEO of SK Hynix, said that the company was considering joining a consortium to jointly invest in the acquisition of arm, a British chipmaker. Park Zhenghao said at a briefing, "we are considering investing in arm with other companies. Arm plays a very important role in the international semiconductor ecosystem, and this ecosystem will not allow a single entity to fully enjoy the benefits of the acquisition." it is reported that in addition to sk Hynix, chip giant Intel also expressed interest in participating in the consortium to acquire arm in February.

05Malaysian palm oil outlook in early trading: palm oil futures are expected to fall in the opening Trading

On Wednesday morning, the crude palm oil futures of the Malaysian derivatives exchange (BMD) may fall at the opening, because the Russia Ukraine talks have made progress, and the international crude oil and US soybean oil markets fell. On Tuesday, Russia and Ukraine held the fifth round of talks in Turkey. After the talks, the Deputy Minister of defense of Russia announced that the Russian army would significantly reduce its military activities in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and around Chernigov. This led to the continued decline of international crude oil futures. In addition, since March, the pace of palm oil export has slowed down and the output has increased, which is also unfavorable to the price.

06U.S. consumer confidence rebounded in March, and job vacancies remained close to a record high

① Consumer confidence in the United States rebounded from a one-year low in March due to rising optimism in the job market, but raising interest rates against the backdrop of high inflation may damage car purchases in the next six months and limit consumer spending.

② The labor market continues to benefit workers. Other data released on Tuesday showed that job vacancies in February hovered around a record high. The tight labor market environment is pushing up wages, providing a buffer for the impact of inflation. Consumer one-year inflation expectations soared to the highest level since 1987.

③ Tim Quinlan, a senior analyst at Wells Fargo Bank, said: "the strong job market is helping families bear the increasing burden of rising prices."

④ The World Association for large enterprises said that the consumer confidence index rose to 107.2 this month, and the data in February was revised down to 105.7. Economists had expected that the index would drop to 107.0 from 110.5 released in early February.

⑤ The employment market difference index of the world enterprise research institute rose to a record high of 47.4 this month, from 41.5 in February. The index is based on respondents' views on whether jobs are sufficient or difficult to find. This indicator is related to the unemployment rate of the Ministry of labor.

⑥ The job vacancy and labor mobility Survey (jolts) report released by the U.S. Department of labor on Tuesday highlighted consumers' optimistic views on the labor market. The report shows that the number of job vacancies on the last day of February decreased by 17000 to 11.266 million, but it is not far from the record high of 11.448 million job vacancies set in December last year.

07Aluminum prices fell sharply, and Russia promised to reduce military operations in Ukraine

① Most industrial metals fell on Tuesday, led by aluminum futures, after Russia promised to curtail military operations around Kiev and Northern Ukraine, promoting the easing of supply concerns supporting aluminum prices.

② Signs of conflict abatement have made aluminum and other metals lose momentum. As Russia is a major producer of nickel, aluminum and copper, the sanctions imposed on it have raised supply concerns.

③ Russia is also a major supplier of natural gas in Europe. In Europe, potential supply disruptions are considered to have hit power intensive aluminum and zinc production.

④ A metal analyst said: "the hope that Russia and Ukraine will reach an agreement to end the conflict has led to sudden price changes. If expectations exceed reality, this reaction may only last for a short time."

⑤ The London Metal Exchange (LME) index of three-month aluminum fell 4.3% to US $3449 per ton on Tuesday, hitting US $3404 as low as in the session, a new low for more than a week.

⑥ Analysts and traders said that other LME base metals are trying to cope with the lack of liquidity. As of the closing, LME copper was flat at $10351 per ton, lead rose 0.87% to $2389 per ton, zinc fell 1.1% to $4056 per ton, and nickel fell 3.3% to $31840 per ton.

08Britishvolt and Bakrie vktr cooperate to develop nickel battery for sustainable electric vehicles

① Electric vehicle (EV) battery start-ups britishvolt and Bakrie&brothers vktr said on Tuesday that they would develop sustainable nickel refining capacity in Indonesia and consider establishing battery plants there;

② The two companies will establish a joint venture named indovolt BV vktr to provide nickel sulfate, which is a key component of high-performance electric vehicle batteries, and will eventually be produced using renewable energy.