Spot copper concentrate TCs continued to decline, smelters in China did not reduce or suspend production

As of January 19, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index (Weekly) stood at $41.45/mt, $6.18/mt lower than a week earlier. The price coefficient of Cu 20% domestic ore stood at 89.5-90.5%.

The TCs of spot copper concentrates continued to decline. Offers of clean ore by traders for smelters dropped to the low $30s, and the traded TCs fell to the mid-to-low $30s. Loading was deferred to March. Some Chinese smelters reportedly underwent severe raw material shortages. However, according to SMM, there has been no smelter cutting or halting production due to raw material issue.

One smelter purchased 10,000 mt of Australian clean ore with TCs of $35/mt from a trader, scheduled for shipment in March. At the end of the week, a smelter purchased 10,000 mt of clean ore from a trader in the low $30s, which is scheduled for the end of the first quarter.

Zhongjin Lingnan Copper Industry Co. held a discussion meeting on the overall layout optimisation of the 400,000-mt copper production capacity integration and green upgrading project. The project is aimed to integrate green, efficient and intelligent through production capacity integration. The company adopts the world's most advanced copper smelting process and equipment with independent intellectual property rights to build a 400,000 mt/year copper anode production line. According to SMM survey, the project is an upgrade and utilisation of an existing production line, not an expansion project. The raw materials include copper anode and concentrates.

According to SMM statistics, the inventory of copper concentrate at seven Chinese ports was around 925,000 mt as of January 19, a growth of 87,000 mt from a week earlier. Lianyungang port accounted for most of the increase with a weekly growth of 70,000 mt.