[SMM analysis] the price difference between refined and waste copper and the supply of scrap copper improved, and the scrap copper rod increased the consumption of refined copper.

Published: May 14, 2020 20:16

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SMM5, 14 March:

According to SMM research data, the operating rate of scrap copper rod enterprises in April was 28.16%, an increase of 9.62 percentage points over the previous month and a decrease of 38.82 percentage points from the same period last year.

The resumption of production in the scrap copper rod industry has been further improved, but it is only operating at a very low operating rate compared with the same period last year. In April, the supply of scrap copper was still very tight, leading to the need for manufacturers to increase prices. Due to high costs and the inability to ensure a stable supply of raw materials, some of the scrap copper rod industry failed to restart or run only one production line. In addition, the price difference between scrap copper rod and refined copper rod is maintained in a very small range, lack of price advantage, downstream favored the purchase of refined copper rod, scrap copper rod order is not good also to curb the enthusiasm of enterprises to start.

According to the SMM survey, the operating rate of scrap copper rod enterprises is expected to be 35.53% in May, an increase of 7.37 percentage points over the previous month and a decrease of 18.91 percentage points from the same period last year.

With the continuous recovery of copper prices and the repair of fine waste price differentials, the production profits of enterprises and the advantages of scrap copper rods gradually expanded; and at the end of April, scrap copper traders actively profited from shipping or stop-loss exchange in the high copper price range, and the supply of scrap copper improved significantly. The expansion of the price difference between fine and waste is accompanied by the decrease of the difficulty of replenishing raw materials, and the amount of scrap copper rod flowing to the market has also increased obviously. At present, the price difference between scrap copper rods and refined copper is maintained at 400-500 yuan / ton, which will undoubtedly continue to be good for scrap copper rods. However, due to the tight supply of scrap copper as a whole, the operating rate of scrap copper rods is expected to rise only slightly in May. There is still a lot of distance from the same period last year.

Regeneration Price Electrolytic Copper operating rate Price Forecast

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM‘s internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

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