China copper smelters raised floor TC to $67/mt for Q1 2020

[SMM Flash] From the perspective of imported scrap structure, China’s copper scrap import source landscape remained stable in July, with Thailand, Japan, and South Korea still serving as the top source countries and holding the core share of China’s imports. At the same time, shipments from multiple European countries saw explosive growth, breaking the previous supply landscape dominated by Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The trend toward import diversification became more pronounced, and China’s channels for importing copper scrap continued to broaden. In July, China imported 36,700 mt in physical content of copper scrap from Thailand, accounting for 16.76% of total imports that month, up 6.83% YoY and pulling back slightly by 1.56% MoM.

[SMM Brass Billet Flash] The copper billet market remains in the traditional consumption off-season, with end-users lacking strong driving force for order recovery. Although copper prices have pulled back, they are still at high levels overall. The tight supply of recycled brass raw materials continues, and high raw material costs keep squeezing the profits of processing enterprises, dampening their production enthusiasm. SMM expects the operating rate of brass billet sample enterprises to edge down to 48.58% next week, down 0.93 percentage points YoY.