High Port Inventory Last Friday did not Restrict the Spot Copper Concentrate Trading

SHANGHAI, Aug 22 (SMM) - As of Friday August 19, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index (weekly) stood at $73.51/mt, $0.87/mt lower than in the previous week. Spot copper concentrate trading kept improving last week. TCs of copper concentrate between mines and traders mainly stood at $58-59/mt, and a smelter purchased the non-clean concentrate with TCs close to $78-79/mt, which were scheduled to be shipped from September to November. According to the SMM research, some smelters will receive the spots arriving at ports in the near future, which were delayed by the Qinhuangdao incident, with TCs of $88-89/mt. In addition, some smelters also intended to purchase some concentrates, including clean and mixed concentrates, and they were still negotiating the prices.

On the news front, Chilean President Gabriel Boric met with Don Lindsay, CEO of Teck Resources, last week to discuss Chile's mining royalties, but Don Lindsay said that Teck Resources has a tax and fee stabilisation agreement of QB2, which stipulates that QB2, once it commences production, is free from the changes in tax laws within 15 years. Last Tuesday, SMA, Chile's environmental regulator, said that the tsunami on the north coast of Chile destroyed a construction platform of Antofagasta, but fortunately, the accident did not affect the operation of the mine. Lundin Mining was considering selling its NevesCorvo copper-zinc mine in Portugal, which is worth about 1 billion euros. In the second quarter of 2022, its copper output stood at 7,900 mt, down 23.7% year-on-year and 20.5% quarter-on-quarter. Turquoise Hill in Canada rejected Rio Tinto's $2.7 billion proposal to acquire its remaining 49% shares. The Western Australian government approved the construction of Oz Minerals' West Musgrave copper-nickel project, which is expected to produce 32,000 mt of copper per year.

According to the SMM survey, as of last Friday, the inventory of copper concentrate at ports (Fangchenggang, Jinzhou, Huludao, Qingdao and Lianyungang) totalled 807,000 mt in physical content, up 36,000 mt WoW. The overall inventory was still high as the smelters got sufficient goods. Some smelters have the restocking demand for copper concentrates that are scheduled to be shipped in September and October, and the TCs of clean concentrate will trade at around $74-75/mt. Besides, the resale of port inventory of concentrate by a smelter last week is also favourable for the TCs in the future. Recently, the power rationing in China caused by the hot weather cast limited influence on the production of domestic smelters, but some smelters plan to overhaul due to the power rationing policy, which is also worthy of attention. The pricing coefficient of domestic spot Cu 20% copper concentrate stood at 89-90% on a delivery-to-factory basis last week.