SHANGHAI, Sep 29 (SMM) – The Chinese Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT) CSPT finalised the price floor of treatment and refining charges (TC/RC) in the fourth quarter at $58/mt and 5.8 cents/pound, $5/mt and 0.5 cents/pound higher than that of Q3. CSPT held the latest price floor meeting of Q4 in Ningde, Fujian this morning.
There is marginal improvement in copper supply and demand in the fourth quarter. On the supply side, the output of the underground part of Grasberg keeps growing, and the Panama copper ore and the Pumpkin Hollow copper ore in the US will continue to climb after the resumption of production, and the impact of the pandemic on copper production will continue to decrease.
On the demand side, a production line in India's Birla Copper Refinery will turn into maintenance for one month from mid-September, and equipment maintenance will be carried out in Serbia's Zijin Boer Copper Industry due to sulfur dioxide recycle problem, which is expected to be completed before the end of 2022, and there is some disturbance at the smelting end.
Domestic refineries have sufficient inventories at present. In terms of time period, refineries often advance the stockpiling requirements in the fourth quarter and the first quarter. Currently, there are not many spot positions needed in the fourth quarter, so the purchasing price has increased, and at the same time, they should make preparations for the upcoming annual negotiation.
SMM Copper Concentrate Index stood at $48.56/mt as of September 25, up $0.04/mt from the previous month, and the transaction range was still below TC 50, but SMM learned that the buyer's counter-offer price did rise.
