SMM Weekly Review on Scrap Copper Consumption (Sept. 5-9)

SHANGHAI, Sept. 13 (SMM) –SHFE copper prices fluctuated over the past week, with limited upside or downside room. However, scrap copper prices were stable, keeping the price gap with refined copper within RMB 800/mt. Scrap copper prices in some areas such as Guangdong were higher than refined copper prices, which significantly affected downstream processors. For one thing, scrap copper had no price advantages compared with refined copper, which propelled enterprises to buy refined copper as raw materials due to its high quality. For the other, increases in scrap copper prices pushed up costs for low-oxygen rod, which became less competitive than free-oxygen rod as a result. The declines in low-oxygen rod orders in turn weakened enterprise consumption for scrap copper.