The Philippine government will step up support for the local mining industry via exploration activities starting next year to identify more areas where critical minerals such as nickel and chromium can be extracted, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The agreement comes against a complicated auto and green steel backdrop.

But some steel industry observers think concerns might be overblown.

“Outages are going to be a blip on my radar because they’re planned. Eight planned outages are better than one unplanned [outage],” another distributor said.

Buyside contacts expressed concerns about increased import costs after the yuan devalued sharply against the dollar.

Baosteel is looking to start up a hydrogen/natural-gas based DRI plant at its Zhanjiang facility in southern China.

ChemX rolls out maiden Jamieson Tank manganese resource

Build a new China-ASEAN commodity channel to promote new domestic and international dual circulation development