Metals &Mining Alert-Daily prices and news:EU passenger vehicle market continues growth

Industrials (/lb): aluminum $0.82 (+0.3%), copper $2.61 (-1.9%), lead $1.04(+1.2%), molybdenum $6.80 (+0.0%); nickel $4.61 (-1.0%); zinc $1.23 (-1.2%);Precious (/oz): gold $1,217 (+1.2%), silver $17.19 (+2.3%); Steel (/mt): ChinaHRC $569 (+0.9%), SHFE Rebar $486 (+1.1%), MB Scrap Index $279 (+0.0%);Bulks: iron ore (/dmt) $82 (-2.3%), coking coal (/mt) $180 (+0.0%), freight (BCI)1,509 (+2.8%); Energy: Brent (/bbl) $55.50 (-0.7%), WTI (/bbl) $52.48 (+0.6%),natural gas (/mmBtu) $3.41 (-0.5%), thermal coal (/t) $85 (+2.0%).

    EU passenger vehicle market registers third consecutive year of growth in2016. New vehicle registrations grew 6.8% YoY to 14.64m units driven bystrong growth in Italy (+16%), Spain (+11%) and France (+5%). Sales forDecember reached 1.14m units (+3% YoY), a record for the month. (SBB)US levies anti-dumping duty on Turkish rebar in a revised verdict of the 2013case. Anti-dumping margins were fixed at 2.44% (initial verdict of no duty)from July 2012-June 2013. Domestic producers are pursuing higher duties onrebar from Turkey, Taiwan and Japan in an ongoing Sep’16 case scheduled forruling on Feb 21. Platts Midwest rebar price rose to $550-570/st ($520-535/stlast week) on anticipated higher spring construction demand. (SBB)US steel long product outlook improves on higher infra spending expectations.

    Proposed 1,000 mile long wall on the Southern border could result inincremental demand (if built) of 2.5m st of rebar (2015 demand: 8.5m st). Wallor not, a general increase of infrastructure spend “would” be positive forCommercial Metals, Nucor and Steel Dynamics from our coverage. (SBB, DB)Philippines cancels environmental permits for four more mining projects,including a proposed $2.5bn nickel mine, a gold mine, a coal miner and aniron/copper project. This is a part of Environmental Compliance Certificates(ECCs) review, where ECCs of three nickel mines were cancelled in December.

    Also, 10 mines have been suspended so far with 20 more at risk from aseparate mining audit with results set to be released on 1/31. (Reuters)Freeport-McMoRan agrees with US government and Navajo Nation to cleanup94 abandoned uranium mines on Navajo land for ~$600m (half of the cost tobe contributed by US). Freeport’s units Cyprus Amax Minerals and WesternNuclear will perform the cleanup work. (Reuters)Coeur (CDE) to sell Joaquin project to Pan American Silver (PAAS) for $25m($15m cash and $10m PAAS equity). CDE will retain 2% net smelter returnsroyalty. Deal to close in 1Q17 and is part of CDE’s plan to exit mining inArgentina. For PAAS, Joaquin is close to Manantial Espejo with technicalstudies now underway to integrate. (Company)Kaiser Aluminum announces 11% increase of 2017 quarterly dividend to$0.50/sh (in-line with DBe). $2.00/sh annual dividend implies 2.5% yield (vsprior 2.3%) and should be a cash outflow of ~$36m. (Company, DB)