SHANGHAI, Feb 8 (SMM)—An SMM survey showed that China produced 798,300 mt of copper cathode in January, falling 7.39% from December, but rising 9.97% from a year ago.

Operating rates at copper smelters fell sharply in January as they completed annual production targets at the end of 2020. Besides, shipments of copper concentrate from South America were hampered, which also brought pressure to copper smelters.

According to smelters’ production schedules, SMM expects China’s copper cathode output to increase 1.71% on the month and 18.86% on the year to 812,000 mt in February, as several smelters recover from maintenance. For the first two months of 2021, output is likely to total 1.61 million mt, up 14.28% from the same period last year. Shortages of storage capacity for sulphuric acid drove smelters to reduce output in February 2020, which led to a sharp year-on-year increase in copper cathode output.