Exclusive: China's copper cathode output rose 8.14% on the month to 810,500 mt in August

Published: Sep 8, 2020 13:50

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China’s copper cathode output rose sharply in August as almost no maintenance has been heard in the month and copper scrap supply was sufficient.

SHANGHAI, Sep 8 (SMM) — China’s copper cathode output rose sharply in August as almost no maintenance has been heard in the month and copper scrap supply was sufficient.

An SMM survey showed that China produced 810,500 mt of copper cathode in August, up 8.14% from July and 5.58% from a year earlier. For the first eight months of 2020, China’s copper cathode output totalled 5.99 million mt, up 3.39% from the same period last year.

The coronavirus pandemic and shortage of raw materials slowed the increase in copper cathode output in the first half of this year, and thus smelters have increased scheduled output since August in order to fulfill annual production targets. There are still new projects likely coming online in the near term.

SMM expects China’s copper cathode output to rise 0.67% on the month and 7.45% on the year to 815,900 mt in September, and January-to-September output is likely to increase 3.86% on the year to 6.81 million mt.

Output Copper cathode

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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