SMM Weekly Price Outlook for Base Metals on LME and SHFE (Jul. 24-28, 2017)

The recent copper price correction has driven concentrated release of downstream orders. With the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays approaching, enameled wire enterprises have launched pre-stocking, boosting production enthusiasm. The industry operating rate is expected to maintain an upward trend. Next week, focus on copper price fluctuations and the pace of downstream pre-holiday stocking.

This week (Sep 11–17), the operating rate of the enameled wire industry rose by 5.2 percentage points month-on-month, exceeding expectations. Copper prices drifted lower starting last Friday, releasing pent-up downstream rigid demand previously suppressed by high copper prices. New orders jumped 16.67 percentage points from the prior week.

Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) has signed a US$498 million EPC contract with China Nerin Engineering for a new Tailings Leach Plant in Chingola, Zambia. The facility will use hydrometallurgical leaching technology to recover copper from existing mine tailings and is designed to add approximately 70,000 tonnes of copper production per year. KCM says it will become Africa's largest facility of its kind once completed. China NERIN will undertake engineering, procurement, construction and installation, as well as provide commissioning, performance-testing and workforce-training support. The new plant will operate alongside KCM's existing tailings-processing facilities at Nchanga and forms part of Vedanta's broader investment programme to increase KCM's copper production toward approximately 300,000 t/y.