Arrival of imports depress spot copper premiums

Published: Aug 24, 2018 14:31 (GMT+8)

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Spot copper was mostly offered at a premium of 60-120 yuan/mt over the SHFE 1809 contract in Shanghai on Friday Aug 24

SHANGHAI, Aug 24 (SMM) – Spot copper was mostly offered at a premium of 60-120 yuan/mt over the SHFE 1809 contract in Shanghai on Friday August 24. This compared with a premium of 80-150 yuan/mt on Thursday.

Supplies continued to grow as more imported copper arrived, and this weighed on spot premiums. Transactions cooled from August 23 as traders demanded lower offers and as downstream consumers did not hurry to restock.

Premiums for high-quality copper were lowered to 100 yuan/mt before noon, from 130 yuan/mt in the morning. High-quality products with an invoice in September saw even lower premiums of 90 yuan/mt, with greater supplies. Premiums for standard-quality copper also fell some 30 yuan/mt to 60 yuan/mt during the morning. Offers for hydro-copper were heard as low as a discount of 10 yuan/mt.

Supply pressures also hampered the futures market, with the SHFE 1809 contract weakening in the morning to a low of 48,040 yuan/mt. Prices of SHFE later-month contracts 1811 and 1812 stood some 50 yuan/mt higher from front-month contracts 1809 and 1810, SMM learned.

At noon, high-grade copper traded at 48,420-48,500 yuan/mt and standard-quality copper traded at 48,380-48,440 yuan/mt.

Market commentary Spot copper

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