China's smelters' copper anode inventories decline

Asian copper scrap supply is severely tight due to decline in the volume and quality of US exports due to recovering domestic consumption; depleted inventories from early-year copper price volatility; and China's tax compliance pressures restricting local scrap flows, which intensifies regional competition for imports. Boosted by bullish hoarding, pricing coefficients have defied expected corrections despite surging copper prices. Bare Bright Copper is currently converging around 98.5%, with No. 1 Copper at 97%-97.5%. Notably, No. 2 Copper coefficients have spiked "abnormally" to 95%-96%. This anomaly is primarily driven by high precious metal prices, as scrap batches rich in gold and silver impurities command high premiums, lifting the overall No. 2 Copper pricing benchmark.

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on 08 May , 2026

[SMM Copper Anode] SMM expects the operating rate of China's copper anode enterprises to decline 2.58 percentage points MoM to 45.60% in May 2026, with ore-derived copper anode enterprises expected to see their operating rate decline 0.14 percentage points MoM to 74.82%; due to tight supply of tax-inclusive copper scrap, the operating rate of copper anode producers using scrap is expected to decline 3.58 percentage points MoM to 33.66%. (Referring only to the non-captive copper anode portion)