Arbitrage Trade Shrinks 90%

China imported a combined 325,500 mt of copper cathode (unwrought copper cathodes and unwrought other copper cathodes with Cu> 99.9935%) in November 2021, up 22.83% on the month but down 2.42% on the year, according to the General Administration of Customs. Year-to-date imports through November totalled around 3.04 million mt, a decrease of 27.85% on the year.

SMM understood that Codelco plans to set the benchmark premium for long-term contracts of copper cathode to China in 2022 at $105/mt, much higher than the $88/mt in 2021. Many domestic traders have received offers, but none have accepted them.

Hectic trades sent Yangshan copper premiums rising sharply last week.

SMM data showed that the stocks of copper in Shanghai bonded areas fell 17,500 mt from last Friday July 30 to 392,100 mt as of August 6, falling for four consecutive weeks.

Stocks of copper in Shanghai bonded areas decreased on increased de-stocking.

The 8.2-magnitude earthquake in Mexico killed at least 90 people as of yesterday. The quake is the most powerful one in 100 years in the country, its president said. 

China’s copper cathode imports declined 21.5% on a yearly basis to 283,468 tonnes during January-July, according to China Customs. Declines narrowed, though.

Spot TCs for imported copper concentrate stabilized last week. As of July 28, SMM TCs offers for spot copper ore were $80-85 per tonne, SMM data showed.

TCs of spot imported copper concentrate fell slightly this past week as supplies tightened, SMM said.

China’s copper inventories in bonded area were 470,000 tonnes in the week ending December 30, Shanghai Metals Market learns.