SHANGHAI, Mar. 6 (SMM) –According to the latest SMM survey of major domestic copper wire rod producers, the number of producers using scrap copper as a raw material increased during February.

In late January and early February, a round of copper price surges helped the price gap between #1 bare bright (including tax) and refined copper expand to nearly RMB 1,800/mt, propelling some copper wire rod producers to replenish scrap copper stocks. However, the price gap narrowed rapidly later. Hence, the utilization rate of scrap copper for February increased slightly, but remained extremely low.