As of August 18, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index (Weekly) stood at $93.35/mt, $0.68/mt lower than a week earlier, falling for the first time after rising for 21 consecutive weeks. The spot market continued to be quiet last week. During the week, smelters' inquiries to traders for clean ore and mixed ore scheduled in September increased significantly. But traders’ inventories of such cargoes were limited. The price coefficient of Cu 20% domestic ore stood at 88.5-89.5%.
According to SMM analysis, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index may peak and fall in the near term. Inquiries of buyers for clean ore scheduled in September stood at $95/mt, while the sellers offered the TCs in the low $90s. Traded TCs between mines and smelters have remained in the high $80s for over a month, and those between traders and smelters did not breach $95/mt. Therefore, SMM believes that the spot TCs of copper concentrate will fall. Some market participants said that even with the unexpected growth in inquiries from Chinese buyers, the spot TCs for copper concentrate can only fall back to the high $80s.
According to SMM survey, the technical upgrading project of a smelter in central China may be completed in October. The copper smelting technology innovation and upgrading project of Baiyin Nonferrous is expected to be put into operation at the end of August, and feeding will begin in October. A smelter in north-east China has completed the first annual maintenance and will commence the second maintenance (technical upgrading at smelting line) at the end of the year. The market expects that the phase II project of a smelter in south China will be completed in October-November ahead of schedule before the feeding is started.
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