Copper Concentrate TCs Inched Lower

SHANGHAI, November 1 (SMM) – As of Friday October 29, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index stood at $62.84/mt, $1.44/mt lower than a week earlier. The transactions picked up early last week, and most trades were for shipments in December and January 2022. The transaction was relatively weak in the second half of the week. The majority of the transactions were among mines and smelters, while there was a lack of transactions between traders and smelters. Most of the traded TCs stood at $61-62/mt.

In the middle of the week, the mining corridor of MMG Peru’s Las Bambas copper mine located in the southern Cotabambas province of the Apurímac region was unblocked. However, Peru’s Antamina copper-zinc mine announced that the nearby road was blocked by residents on October 24, which is 60 km away from the mine, as the local residents believed that the mine has not fully fulfilled its promises. It has not disrupted the operation and transportation. But the three important land transportation ports of copper concentrates in north China continued to be affected by the prevention and control of the pandemic, especially at the Alashankou port. This has affected the smelters in north-west China.

Some smelters have already increased the consumption of seaborne copper concentrate to ensure the production. Dongying’s 300,000 mt/year smelting project was officially put into trial production at the end of last week. This, combined with the demand for stockpiling of cargoes scheduled for December from some small and medium-sized smelters, as well as the disruptions to the supply, has lowered the TCs of spot copper concentrate recently.