SMM Price Outlook for Base Metals on SHFE (Aug. 29, 2017)

US durable goods orders in May once again revealed a divergence of weak headline figures but a strong core. On June 25, the US Commerce Department reported that US durable goods orders fell 4.5% MoM in May, in line with market expectations and marking the steepest drop in nearly a year—a sharp pullback from the revised 8.5% increase in April. However, excluding transportation equipment, which is subject to large fluctuations, orders rose 1.3% MoM, above the expected 0.5% and the prior 1.1%, indicating that underlying demand in manufacturing remains resilient.

Russian base metal producer Norilsk Nickel expects the global copper concentrate market to remain in undersupply in 2026, with a deficit of 751,000 mt, which will continue to put pressure on processing enterprises' profits.The company stated in its copper market outlook report released on June 23 that benchmark treatment charges (TCs) for copper concentrates under the 2026 annual contract framework have been set at $0/mt, down from $21/mt in 2025, as smelting capacity continues to compete for scarce concentrate supply.

NexMetals Mining said that resources at its Selkirk copper-nickel-platinum group metals project have increased by nearly 70%, and it could now become a “significant contributor” to its Botswana-focused growth strategy.In a resource update released on Wednesday, the Toronto-based miner said that breakthroughs from re-assaying and twin drilling have converted a large amount of inferred resources, giving the project indicated resources of approximately 1.1 billion pounds of copper equivalent (CuEq) contained in 78.2 million mt of ore at an average grade of 0.66% CuEq.