Inventory Surge, Suppliers Proactively Cut Prices to Sell; Overall Trading Better than Last Friday [SMM South China Spot Copper]

Published: Jun 22, 2026 11:34

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SMM June 22 News:

Today, spot #1 copper cathode in Guangdong against the front-month contract: high-quality copper was at a premium of 120 yuan/mt, down 80 yuan/mt from the previous trading day; standard-quality copper was at a premium of 50 yuan/mt, down 90 yuan/mt from the previous trading day; SX-EW copper was at a discount of 10 yuan/mt, down 90 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. The average price of #1 copper cathode in Guangdong was 104,675 yuan/mt, down 490 yuan/mt from the previous trading day, while the average price of SX-EW copper was 104,580 yuan/mt, down 425 yuan/mt.

Spot market: After the Dragon Boat Festival, Guangdong's inventory increased significantly, primarily due to weak downstream consumption during the holiday. Affected by the sharp inventory increase and some suppliers' urgent need to cash out, spot premiums fell sharply today. After both premiums and prices pulled back, processing enterprises actively restocked, and trading was noticeably better than last Thursday. Today, the purchasing sentiment for copper cathode in Guangdong was 2.54, up 0.35 from the previous trading day, and the shipment sentiment was 2.78, up 0.15 from the previous trading day (historical data can be accessed from the database).

Overall, with inventories surging, suppliers proactively cut prices to sell, while end-users actively replenished, leading to overall trading activity better than last Friday.

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM's internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

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