Copper Concentrate Market Participants Tend to be Cautious before Long-Term Contract Negotiations

SHANGHAI, Oct 25 (SMM) – The community in Peru stated that it had failed to reach an agreement with the government and would block Minmetals Las Bambas’ access to the roads that connect the mines indefinitely, which will affect all vehicles passing through the road. At the same time, domestic land transportation, especially the three important ports in north-west China, have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to varying degrees. This has caused some copper concentrates to accumulate at the ports. Spot TCs of imported copper concentrate fell slightly. But the traders basically maintained their original operation in October and did not have too many spot cargoes on hands. Most of them performed long-term contracts amid high TCs.

Dongying Fangyuan commenced a 300,000 mt/year smelting project last week. This is an important milestone for Dongying Fangyuan’s returning to business, which is earlier than the market originally expected. Dongying Fangyuan plans to officially start production in early November.

Although Fangyuan has already prepared enough raw materials, the commencement of the project, which coincides with the long-term TCs negotiation, may put domestic smelters under slight pressure in the negotiation process.