The U.S. and Iran extended their pause in hostilities, with focus moving to talks between Tehran and Oman over restarting traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. A deal to get ships moving through the Strait would enable Iran and the U.S. to resume formal negotiations about Tehran’s nuclear program and permanently ending the five-month war. Omani officials said they hope to make an announcement signaling progress in the next few days. Separately, Saudi Aramco has shut down its Jazan oil refinery after a Houthi missile and drone attack damaged key facilities at the site (with repairs expected to be completed by Aug. 15).
The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) extended the deadline for its battery-grade lithium carbonate strategic stockpile solicitation from 7/17 to 7/30. On 7/2, DLA issued the solicitation for contracts for up to 35.6M lbs (16.2t) of lithium carbonate, with a minimum guaranteed order value of $1M and maximum contract value of $300M. The procurement schedule calls for 8.1M lbs during the first contract year, gradually declining to approximately 6.3M lbs in the fifth year. The product must be powdered battery-grade lithium carbonate with a minimum purity of 99.5%, delivered to DLA warehouses located in New York, Nevada, Indiana, or Ohio.
Lundin Mining announced it will take 2-to-3 weeks to restart operations at its Caserones copper mine after heavy rain and snow damaged two power-line towers at the mine, which has been without power since 7/18. The outage could erase 10kt of copper output, putting Caserones’ guidance of 130kt to 140kt of ’26 production at risk unless production rebounds in Q4.
Indonesia's presidential staff office has called for cooperation between government agencies, law enforcement officials and industry to resolve a regulatory gap that industry sources say has delayed exports of alumina and nickel products over their rare-earth content. After reports of delayed shipments due to absence of clear regulations, Presidential Chief of Staff Dudung Abdurachman chaired a coordination meeting on Monday between government agencies, law enforcement officials and industry representatives.
AI watch: Is the AI wave finally hitting the worry wall of lofty valuations, circular infrastructure financing and accelerating Chinese competition? Samsung Electronics shares fell 13.4% on Tuesday (worst 1-day decline in 20 years) and SK Hynix shares (due to report earnings Wednesday) plummeted 14.7%. The two companies constitute half of the KOSPI index, which closed down 10.8% (biggest one-day decline since March outbreak of Iran war). Japanese flash memory-chip maker Kioxia Holdings fell 18.3% on Tuesday while Taiwanese chip designer declined almost 10%. Separately 5-year CDS protection NVDA debt surged 14bps intraday (reaching a high of 82bps). Stay tuned…