SHANGHAI, Sep 8 (SMM) — China’s copper cathode output rose sharply in August as almost no maintenance has been heard in the month and copper scrap supply was sufficient.
An SMM survey showed that China produced 810,500 mt of copper cathode in August, up 8.14% from July and 5.58% from a year earlier. For the first eight months of 2020, China’s copper cathode output totalled 5.99 million mt, up 3.39% from the same period last year.
The coronavirus pandemic and shortage of raw materials slowed the increase in copper cathode output in the first half of this year, and thus smelters have increased scheduled output since August in order to fulfill annual production targets. There are still new projects likely coming online in the near term.
SMM expects China’s copper cathode output to rise 0.67% on the month and 7.45% on the year to 815,900 mt in September, and January-to-September output is likely to increase 3.86% on the year to 6.81 million mt.
