North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region announced Wednesday it plans to implement 890 major infrastructure projects this year, with an investment of about 130 billion yuan (about $18.41 billion).

Infrastructure construction has gathered pace across China as the government ramped up funding to spur investment in the sector following basic containment of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

China's foreign trade continued to fall in March, but the momentum of decline has greatly eased, indicating that the world's second-largest economy is gradually recovering from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China's imports of bulk commodities including iron ore, crude oil and coal, as well as essential agricultural products.

The cargo throughput of Yantai port in East China's Shandong province reached 79 million tons in the first quarter of 2020.

[Ferro-Alloys.com] MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Rio Tinto Ltd reported higher-than-expected iron ore production for the first quarter on Friday, boosting its shares, but cut its forecast for annual copper output citing disruptions due to the coronavirus.

[Ferro-Alloys.com] South Africa allowed mining companies to resume operations at half their normal capacity as the government takes its first steps to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

[Ferro-Alloys.com] KEY POINTS South Africa remains the most affected country in Africa by the pandemic, with 2,415 confirmed cases as of Wednesday morning according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.