SHANGHAI, Mar. 22 (SMM) – SMM survey to domestic copper plate, sheet, strip and foil producers reveals that the proportion of scrap copper used by the surveyed enterprises was down 7.3% MoM to 17.7% in February.

SMM believes the decline in use of scrap copper is attributable to falling prices after the Chinese New Year which resulted in tight scrap copper supply. The sharp decrease in operating rates at copper plate, sheet, strip and foil producers in February also damped their use of scrap copper.