South32 Ltd (LSE:S32, ASX:S32, OTC:SHTLF) is Citi's preferred mining stock as the bank becomes more bullish on copper and aluminium prices, while Glencore PLC (LSE:GLEN) is its favoured way to play the copper theme among the major diversified miners.
The US bank has raised its long-term copper forecasts and now expects prices to reach $15,000 a tonne within the next year, versus a current LME price below $13,800.
Citi's view is based on support from supply shortages extending into 2027 and 2028.
That outlook has prompted a series of target price upgrades across the sector. Citi increased its target price on South32 to 320p from 300p, while lifting BHP Group Ltd (LSE:BHP, ASX:BHP) to £35 from £29 and Rio Tinto Ltd (LSE:RIO, ASX:RIO, OTC:RTNTF) to £81 from £76.
Versus BHP or Rio, the bank's analysts argued that Glencore "among global diversifieds as better exposure to copper upside", though Anglo American PLC (LSE:AAL) and Antofagasta PLC (LSE:ANTO) are viewed by investors as the FTSE 100 miners to buy for copper exposure.
Citi maintained 'neutral' ratings on BHP and Rio Tinto, saying the benefits from higher copper prices are partly offset by a more subdued outlook for iron ore, which remains a major earnings driver for both groups.
By contrast, South32 continues to stand out because of its exposure to both copper and aluminium, where Citi also sees upside. The company's Hermosa project in Arizona was highlighted as a source of long-term structural growth.
Citi said consensus earnings forecasts for South32 still have room to move higher as analysts incorporate stronger assumptions for copper and aluminium prices.
The bank expects the company to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of commodity price upgrades over the next two years.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/south32-named-top-mining-pick-115800447.html
Taipei [Taiwan], June 8 (ANI): Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence on Monday reported 2 PLA aircraft sorties, along with 6 naval vessels and 7 official ships operating around its territory.
In a post on X, the MND said, '2 sorties of PLA aircraft, 6 PLAN vessels and 7 official ships operating around Taiwan detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 2 out of 2 sorties entered Taiwan's eastern part ADIZ. #ROCArmedForces have monitored the situation and responded.'
https://x.com/MoNDefense/status/2063788097477714048?s=20
The Ministry of Defence said that it monitored the situation and responded.
On Sunday, the Ministry of National Defence reported 4 PLA aircraft sorties, along with 9 naval vessels and 7 official ships operating around its territory.
In a post on X, the MND said, '4 sorties of PLA aircraft, 9 PLAN vessels and 7 official ships operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. #ROCArmedForces have monitored the situation and responded.'
Previously in May, US President Donald Trump, in his gaggle with the press at Joint Base Andrews en route to Groton, CT, said that the US will work on the 'Taiwan problem'.
'On Taiwan, I'll speak to everyone. We have that situation very well in hand. We had a great meeting with President Xi; it was amazing actually. We'll work on that Taiwan problem,' he said.
China's claim over Taiwan is a complex issue rooted in historical, political, and legal arguments. Beijing asserts that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, a viewpoint embedded in national policy and upheld by domestic laws and international statements.
Taiwan, however, maintains a distinct identity, functioning independently with its government, military, and economy. Taiwan's status remains a significant point of international debate, testing the principles of sovereignty, self-determination, and non-interference in international law, as per the United Service Institution of India.
China's claim to Taiwan originates from the Qing Dynasty's annexation of the island in 1683 after defeating Ming loyalist Koxinga. (ANI)
The Russian corporate sector, due to sanctions pressure and tax increases, entered 2026 in a state of managed collapse.
Russian business loses profits in 2026
As noted in the SZR, "three-quarters of the largest companies in the Russian Federation recorded a decline in revenue and profit or direct losses in 2025. Dividends have turned into a luxury that the majority can no longer afford."
More than half of Russian companies, 53%, reported cash gaps in 2026. For 27% of them, this is a new reality. The oil and gas and raw materials sectors, wholesale and retail trade, and heavy industry have felt the crisis most painfully.
Gazprom, which until recently was a symbol of the Kremlin's financial power, will leave shareholders without payments for the second time in a row. The concern last paid dividends for the first half of 2022.
Following him, Rusal and Alrosa, two key companies in the aluminum and diamond sectors, refused to pay dividends. Rusal has not paid dividends to shareholders since the first half of 2022 and does not intend to do so for the first quarter of 2026.
Metallurgy is also struggling. NLMK and MMK, the largest steel producers in the Russian Federation, have recommended that shareholders forget about payments for 2025. NLMK last paid based on the results of 2023.
In the real estate market, developer Samolet reported a net loss of 2.3 billion rubles, compared to a profit of 8.2 billion a year earlier. Children's retailer Korablik, one of the largest in its segment, is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, unable to withstand the debt burden and falling demand.
Rostelecom has laid off 20,000 employees. The confectionery holding United Confectioners has lost a quarter of its staff amid falling sales. Bork Retail's profits have fallen by 90% compared to 2024.
Volga Avtodor demonstrated one of the worst results: revenue fell by 96%, and debts to creditors reached 3 billion rubles, which is five times more than the company's entire annual revenue.
Shareholders of Magnit, Uralkali, Seligdar, Fix Price, Eurotrans, Unipro, Europlan, and the car-sharing service Whoosh, which received over 2.9 billion rubles in net losses, will also be left without dividends.
VK Holding, which is run by Vladimir Kiriyenko, the son of Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko, did not publish any profit and loss figures in its quarterly financial results presentation. This means that VK's net profit is likely to be negative again.
https://news.online.ua/en/managed-collapse-russian-business-to-suffer-huge-losses-in-2026-904523/
By Charles Kennedy - Jun 08, 2026, 12:30 PM CDT
The Strait of Hormuz will ultimately reopen but Iran and Oman will set new conditions for passage, including transit fees, Kazem Jalali, Iran’s Ambassador to Russia, told Russian daily Izvestia in an interview on Monday.
“Of course, this strait will be open, but with new conditions to be determined by the Iranian and Omani authorities,” Reuters quoted Jalali as telling the Russian newspaper.
“We understand that Iran and Oman provide certain services related to this strait. And fees will be charged for those services,” the ambassador said, without giving further details.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, said that the Omani Ambassador to the U.S. assured him that “there are no plans for tolling the Strait.”
Putting transit fees on passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz is a “non-starter,” Bessent told the Omani envoy.
In indirect negotiations with the United States about an end to the war, Iran is reportedly demanding that a deal should contain provisions that Tehran can ask for transit fees from vessels willing to move through the chokepoint.
Since the war began on February 28, tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed by 90% to 95% compared to pre-war levels, leaving the market about 13 million barrels per day (bpd) short of crude and fuel supply that was previously freely flowing to buyers.
Some oil cargoes continue to trickle through the critical chokepoint, but under increasingly opaque operating conditions, complicating the tracking of oil and gas flows and obscuring the visibility of how much energy supply actually reaches buyers these days.
More vessels are leaving the region after passing the Strait of Hormuz in a dark mode with transponders switched off, and those entering the Persian Gulf to load cargoes are increasingly doing the same.
The dark-mode tactics, once the feature of Iran-linked vessels aiming to skirt sanctions, are now the norm for the majority of commercial traffic at the Strait of Hormuz, energy flow-tracking firms say.
Published: Jun 8, 2026 02:28
According to statistics from the China Construction Machinery Association on major excavator manufacturers, a total of 24,794 excavators of all types were sold in May 2026, up 36.2% YoY. Among them: domestic sales were 11,628 units (including 24 electric excavators), up 38.6% YoY; exports were 13,166 units (including 25 electric excavators), up 34.2% YoY. In January-May 2026, a total of 126,875 excavators were sold, up 24.7% YoY. Among them: domestic sales were 68,127 units (including 121 electric excavators), up 18.5% YoY; exports were 58,748 units (including 101 electric excavators), up 32.9% YoY.
https://news.metal.com/newscontent/103941856-China-Excavator-Sales-in-May-2026-24794-Units
Chinese refiners have delayed two major refining projects slated for 2026 deployment, freezing a combined capacity of 500,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) following Middle Eastern crude supply disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz driven by the conflict in Iran, according to Reuters.
The operational pushbacks are expected to cap near-term crude demand from the world’s largest oil importer and temper global oil prices, as Chinese downstream operators navigate high feedstock costs and decelerating domestic fuel consumption.
Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Company (HAPCO) postponed the startup of its new 300,000 bbl/d refining and petrochemical complex in Panjin to September or early October, shifting from an initial mid-year target. This adjustment reflects heightened feedstock supply uncertainty caused by regional maritime choke-point disruptions.
HAPCO operates as a joint venture (JV) combining Saudi Aramco, which holds a supply mandate to deliver up to 210,000 bbl/d of crude to the facility, alongside Chinese state-owned defense conglomerate Norinco Group and Panjin Xincheng Industrial Group. Beyond crude distillation, the integrated complex features a 1.65 million metric tons-per-year ethylene cracker and a 2 million metric tons-per-year paraxylene unit.
Separately, PetroChina indefinitely postponed the planned restart of a 200,000 bbl/d crude distillation unit at its Dalian refinery. The state-backed major initially targeted a mid-year restart to capitalize on wide refining margins generated by processing discounted Russian crude barrels. However, the Middle East conflict has altered global oil flows, erasing those discounts through intensified international competition for Russian volumes.
The delays coincide with a sharp compression in Chinese refining margins. Operators are facing an economic squeeze caused by elevated international crude benchmarks alongside domestic retail fuel price caps imposed by the state. Concurrently, underlying fuel demand continues to weaken, driven by accelerating electric vehicle adoption across China. This margin compression reduced Chinese refinery throughput to approximately 13.3 million bbl/d, representing 69% of the country’s estimated 19.2 million bbl/d total capacity.
Despite Chinese operational delays, Asia continues to lead global refining capacity additions, with Indian state firms accelerating alternative processing infrastructure.
Pipeline gas supplies from Russia to Europe stopped. Obviously, Gazprom is carrying out preventive maintenance on the Turkish Stream.
According to ENTSOG, the platform of the GTS operators of the EU countries, deliveries via the European line of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline have stopped since June 2. The route remains the only one through which Russian pipeline gas enters Europe. On the second day of summer, deliveries fell from almost 46 million cubic meters per day to zero.
Obviously, Gazprom carries out annual maintenance work on the gas pipeline and the shutdown also affected supplies to Turkey. There they continue along the "Blue Stream". The company itself does not report anything about this.
A year ago, Gazprom carried out preventive maintenance work on the Turkish Stream also in June. Then deliveries stopped for six days — from June 15 to June 20.
As EADaily reported, after the start of the Iranian war, Turkey sharply reduced the resale of LNG and Russian gas became the main one in March — early June in Bulgaria. It is resold to the country by European traders. While Sofia herself is more concerned about the expansion of the "Vertical Corridor" from Greece to Ukraine.
https://eadaily.com/en/ampnews/2026/06/08/gazprom-has-stopped-deliveries-to-europe
June 8, 2026
Oklahoma’s rig activity saw very little change in the various oil and gas plays across the state in the past week, based on the rig report released by Baker Hughes company. It’s another sign of no letup in the drilling activity across the state.
Overall, the state’s count slipped by one, leaving 43 active rigs. The Cana Woodford, typically with the highest rig activity, recorded a decline of 2 rigs, leaving 19 still drilling. However, the Granite Wash, another busy play, recorded a gain of one rig and reached 18 for a total.
In other plays, the Ardmore Woodford continued with 2 active rigs while the Arkoma Woodford remained at one rig.
Oklahoma’s Mississippi went another week with no reported drilling, based on the Baker Hughes rig count.
US plays
The nation’s strongest shale play, the Permian Basin added 2 rigs for a total of 257 across the stretch from west Texas to southeast New Mexico.
The Haynesville in east Texas and Louisiana remained at 55 active rigs while the Eagle Ford of south Texas was unchanged at 44 rigs breaking the horizon.
The Williston in North Dakota and Montana remained at 28 while the Marcellus continued with 24 rigs.
The Utica’s total remained at 12 and the D-J Niobrara in Colorado saw no change with 8 active rigs.
https://okenergytoday.com/2026/06/no-letup-in-drilling-activity-in-oklahoma-2/
The oil services sector will benefit from the need to invest in the crude oil industry. Stocks, meanwhile, rallied strongly
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz also had consequences on the stock market: risk perception increased and repositioned the oil sector in a new light. Indeed, the energy shock seems destined to leave long-term effects in the priorities of companies and, in turn, in those of investors.
Over the shock
The International Energy Agency (Eia) reports that global investment in energy will rise to USD 3.4 trillion in 2026, of which 1.2 trillion will be in oil, natural gas and coal. The bulk of the resources allocated, however, will finance electricity infrastructure, renewables, and nuclear power. In the oil sector, therefore, volatility is expected in the medium term: on the one hand, demand for crude oil and derivative products remains high, on the other, companies are measuring investments to see whether the tightness of the market will persist beyond the supply shock long enough to justify new large projects, which take years and billions of dollars to implement.
Services in focus
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when the alarm about global energy subservience from Russia and the Middle East sounded, the stocks of oil service companies have also risen on the wave of demand for supplies to try to overcome dependence on oligopolists. These companies provide everything but the oil, from technology to engineering to storage, required to fill the void in Western infrastructure.
"If oil demand proves more resilient than many current forecasts assume," says Maria Shkolnik, Investment specialist Oil & Gas, at Ubp, "years of underinvestment could leave oil markets undersupplied later in the decade. Just as governments and companies replenish stocks and strategic reserves after recent shocks'.
The big oil services groups are Slb, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Technip Fmc. Since the US attack on Iran on 27 February, however, Italy's Rosetti Marino, Norway's Seadrill (now registered in Bermuda), Canada's Ces Energy Solutions and Japan's Modec have also gained well.
https://en.ilsole24ore.com/art/factors-pro-oil-reconstruction-routes-and-infrastructure-AIodzEQD
Ark Energy, a subsidiary of industrial group Korea Zinc, says it has secured approval to connect its hybrid Richmond Valley solar farm and battery energy storage project to the National Electricity Market (NEM).
The project, being developed near the town of Casino in northern New South Wales (NSW), combines a 435 MW solar farm with up to 475 MW / 2,200 MWh of battery energy storage, making it one of the biggest solar hybrid facilities in the country.
Ark Energy said the project has now received its 5.3.4.A/B letters confirming it meets Generator Performance Standards and has approval from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and transmission network service provider Transgrid to connect to the local 330 kV network via the to-be-constructed Richmond Valley Switching Station.
Ark Energy Chief Executive Officer Michael Choi said receiving grid connection approval was a significant milestone for the project which will be one of the first hybrid solar and battery facilities in the NEM with a single point of connection.
“This is a huge achievement and takes us closer to reaching financial close on the project and our goal of breaking ground in the coming months,” he said, noting that approval comes after a “rigorous testing” regime that included design adjustments, power system modelling, hundreds of simulations, and network studies.
Construction on the Richmon Valley project is targeted to commence later this year, with the first stage consisting of a 200 MW solar farm and a 275 MW / 2,200 MWh battery that will incorporate lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry and grid-forming inverter technology.
Choi said the facility, that has been awarded a long-term energy service agreement by the NSW government, is expected to play a key role in supporting the state’s transition to renewable energy.
“Once operational it will make a significant contribution to electricity supply and grid stability for NSW and the NEM,” he said.
The grid connection approval comes after the project was late last year cleared by the federal government under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. In October 2025 Ark Energy received development consent for the project from the NSW government.
Ark Energy has already appointed Spanish company Elecnor as early works contractor and has signed a supply contract with Hanwha Energy for the battery energy storage system. Under the agreement, Hanwha will manufacture, deliver and install a complete lithium iron phosphate BESS solution, including batteries and inverters, along with commissioning services.
Lei Kang • Jun 8, 2026, 10:45 AM GMT+1
China's retail penetration rate for new energy vehicles (NEVs) surged to a record high of 62.9% in May. This milestone was achieved against the backdrop of a year-on-year decline in overall NEV retail sales, highlighting the accelerating collapse of the traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle market.
Retail sales of NEVs in China stood at 950,000 units in May, down 7.5% year-on-year but up 12.4% from April, according to data released Monday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
This marks the fifth consecutive month of year-on-year declines in China's NEV retail sales, underscoring the pressure facing the market.
Despite this, China's NEV retail penetration rate soared to an all-time high of 62.9% in May, exceeding 60% for the second straight month.
This was primarily due to the broader passenger vehicle market remaining under immense pressure. Total national retail sales of passenger vehicles in May were 1.51 million units, a sharp drop of 22.1% year-on-year.
The core driver of the Chinese auto market's downturn is the rapid contraction in sales of ICE vehicles, the CPCA said. Severely impacted by high oil prices, retail sales of conventional ICE passenger vehicles plummeted 39% year-on-year in May.
Consumers' accelerating transition toward electrification has driven the continuous climb in NEV penetration. In the domestic retail market in May, the NEV penetration rate among local Chinese brands reached a staggering 81.4%.
Retail sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in China were 637,000 units in May, up 3.9% year-on-year and 10.3% from April.
Retail sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) stood at 228,000 units, down 23.0% year-on-year but up 19.3% from April.
Retail sales of extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) were 85,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 28.0% but an 11.2% increase from April.
Hybrid vehicles, including PHEVs and EREVs, recorded retail sales of 313,000 units in May, down 24.4% year-on-year but up 15.5% from April.
Meanwhile, overseas markets are emerging as a core growth engine.
China exported 424,000 NEVs in May, surging 112.6% year-on-year and 4.4% month-on-month. This accounted for 54% of total passenger vehicle exports, the highest on record.
In terms of corporate performance, BYD (HKEX: 1211) continued to maintain its absolute market dominance. The company's domestic NEV retail sales reached 207,372 units in May.
Geely Auto (HKEX: 0175) and Changan Automobile followed, achieving NEV retail sales of 109,198 units and 62,865 units, respectively. Tesla's domestic retail sales in May stood at 47,281 units.
https://cnevpost.com/2026/06/08/china-may-nev-penetration-record-high-retail-decline/
Mon, 08-Jun-2026 15:13
GOLD PRICES extended Friday's sharp decline Monday morning, sinking further below the 'key' technical indicator of its 200-day moving average before recovering all today's intraday losses by lunchtime in London after US President Trump declared that Iran and Israel had agreed to cease military strikes against each other following the weekend's escalation, writes Atsuko Whitehouse at BullionVault.
"Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE!" the President tweeted.
"Final negotiations on 'Peace' are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way."
Crude oil see-sawed with gold yet again, surrendering more than half of Monday's earlier jump as the precious metal rebounded.
Global stock and bond markets also pared their losses while the US Dollar retreated from a 2-month high on the currency market.
"Gold on Friday broke below its 200-day moving average, accelerating the sell-off," says Jeff Toshima, former Tokyo director of the mining industry's World Gold Council, pointing to the widely-followed technical analysis tool and citing last week's news of robust US jobs growth in May as pushing up interest-rate expectations and the US Dollar.
The 'safe haven' metal had previously fallen to test gold's 200-DMA twice already since the Iran war began, first at the end of March and then in late May.
"Gold is behaving like a risk asset increasingly sensitive to the Fed narrative," says Nicky Shiels, head of metals strategy at Swiss bullion refining and finance group MKS Pamp, also pointing to gold being dumped by speculative traders after it breached the simple average of its past 200 trading-day prices.
With the interest-rate market now betting that the US central bank will raise its key borrowing cost by the end of the year, gold is "down with risk-off [but] goes nowhere with risk-on," Shiels says.
Betting on next week's June meeting of the Federal Reserve still shows near-certainty that the Fed will keep its policy rate unchanged at 3.62%, according to derivatives exchange the CME's FedWatch tool.
But the Fed funds rate will then be raised to end 2026 at 3.89%, more than three quarters of a point above the December level expected before the Iran war broke out.
"If recent trends continue, it may soon be appropriate to act," said Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack after Friday's strong US non-farm jobs news.
But "there's no reason to raise interest rates," President Trump told NBC on Sunday, while maintaining that new Fed chairman Kevin Warsh should make his own policy decisions.
Wednesday will bring the US consumer price index (CPI) for May, with market consensus forecasts expecting inflation to have risen to 4.3% per year, the steepest rise in the cost of living since April 2023.
With global stock markets rallying after Trump's Iran-Israel announcement, the price of silver − now primarily an industrial metal that derives nearly 60% of its annual demand from productive uses − also recovered from an earlier crash, reducing its decline to 5.8% at $68.43 per ounce around Monday's 12 noon London auction.
"Not every correction is a warning signal," says a note from Swiss banking giant and London bullion clearing member UBS issued amid Friday's price plunge in precious metals.
"Some are simply the price of remaining invested in a structurally supported trend."
"The longer-term fundamentals supporting gold remain unchanged," agrees Jeff Toshima, "including continued central bank purchases, the ongoing trend of diversification away from the US Dollar, and concerns over fiscal sustainability" among major economies including Japan, Western Europe and the USA.
China's central bank continued accumulating gold in May, new data showed overnight, extending its buying streak to 19 consecutive months with reported data signalling a purchase of 10 tonnes, the heaviest monthly accumulation since December 2024.
https://www.bullionvault.com/gold-news/gold-price-news/gold-200-day-fed-rates-060820261
Roberto Sanchez takes a razor thin lead against conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori as vote counting continues.
By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and Reuters
Published On 8 Jun 20268 Jun 2026
Leftist Congressman Roberto Sanchez has edged ahead of his conservative opponent Keiko Fujimori in Peru’s presidential run-off, reversing the narrow lead she held earlier in the day.
With nearly 95 percent of the votes tallied on Monday, Sanchez’s vote rose to 50.10 percent, while Fujimori’s dropped to 49.90 percent.
With only a few thousand votes separating the candidates, the tight race illustrates the deep political polarisation gripping the South American country.
Fujimori, a four-time candidate and daughter of former hardline President Alberto Fujimori, had led by less than a percentage point earlier in the day. The count narrowed as the final ballots were tallied in rural areas, where Sanchez has dominated throughout Peru’s tense election season.
Both of the rivals are vying to become the South American country’s ninth leader in a decade, following a series of forced resignations and impeachments.
New York City crowd boos US President Donald Trump at NBA playoff game
Sanchez, speaking to reporters at the Congress, said he was “confident and optimistic, but we’ll wait for 100 percent of the vote”.
Fujimori, watching her early lead dwindle, called for patience.
“We’re going to wait until the last [vote], and that’s what I hope all Peruvians do,” she said outside her home in Lima on Monday.
Votes at several international polling stations, which are expected to favour Fujimori, have yet to be counted.
Divergent visions
Fujimori, 51, has pitched her candidacy in the tough-on-crime mould of her father, pledging to “defeat terrorism” and impose a 60-day state of emergency.
The elder Fujimori – who installed Keiko as his first lady in the 1990s amid a divorce from his wife – was accused of forced sterilisation of Indigenous people and extrajudicial killings carried out by “death squads”.
Fujimori has defended her family’s legacy and claimed that her opponent would drive Peru into a failed socialist state and “regression”.
But in the final stretch of the race, 57-year-old Sanchez has gained more ground.
A former psychologist and trade minister under leftist President Pedro Castillo, Sanchez moderated his campaign approach in recent weeks while seeking out rural voters and promising anti-poverty measures, police reform and a new constitution built through “citizen participation”.
He has also pledged to pardon Castillo, who is serving a prison sentence following a failed attempt to dissolve Peru’s Congress in 2022.
If he wins, Sanchez would have presidential immunity from charges related to past financial irregularities in his party, though he would still face possible removal attempts from the country’s right-wing legislature.
The current result echoes the 2021 run-off, when Fujimori and Castillo finished with roughly 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent of the vote, respectively. Calling the race dragged on for weeks amid nullity challenges.
“The result reflects the country’s divisions,” Paulo Vilca, a political analyst at the Peruvian Studies Institute, told the AFP news agency. “Whoever wins will have half the country against them.”
Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Lima, said many Peruvians had gone to the polls hoping the winner could bring back political stability.
“Five years ago, Keiko Fujimori lost to former president Pedro Castillo by only 44,000 votes. This race again seems to divide the country, with tensions and distrust running high among voters,” she said.
“Preliminary results show a race still locked in a tight race that will only be called when every single vote is counted,” she added.
According to data released on 4 June by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), member mills produced an average of 2.01 million tons per day of crude steel at the end of may. This level reflects a 4.6% decrease (80,000 tons per day) compared with mid may and a 4.1% decrease on an annual basis.
Including non member producers, China’s national average daily crude steel output was recorded at 2.69 million tons per day, indicating a 4.3% decrease.
On a regional basis, the sharpest decline was observed in North China, where production decreased by 8.3% (57,000 tons per day), leading the overall national downturn.
In contrast, finished steel output increased during the same period. Finished steel production increased by 3.2% to reach 2.07 million tons per day.
On the inventory side, a decrease was observed. Stocks held by member mills decreased by 15.7% to 15.83 million tons as of 31 May, while inventories in 21 major tracked cities also declined to 10.22 million tons.
Overall, the data shows that while crude steel production weakened, finished steel output continued to increase and inventories experienced a clear reduction.
