Exclusive: China’s copper cathode output rose 2.89% MoM to 821,800 mt in February

SHANGHAI, Mar 8 (SMM)—An SMM survey showed that China produced 821,800 mt of copper cathode in February, rising 2.89% from January and 20.31% from a year ago, as some copper smelters recovered from maintenance.

Domestic sulphuric acid prices continued to rise in February, which eased the pressure brought by sliding copper concentrate TCs.Some smelters reduced output last February due to shortages of storage capacity for sulphuric acid, which contributed to the year-on-year rise in copper cathode output. However, smelters faced great pressure of finished products inventory as hiking copper prices after CNY deterred downstream users from buying.

According to smelters’ production schedules, SMM expects China’s copper cathode output to increase 4.01% on the month and 14.94% on the year to 854,800 mt in March. For the first three months of 2021, output is likely to total 2.48 million mt, up 14.99% from the same period last year.