Upside Trend of Spot Copper Concentrate TCs to Accelerate in Near Term

As of last Friday September 9, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index (weekly) stood at $81.96/mt, $2.71/mt higher than the previous week.

In the spot market, Jinchuan nickel was quoted at premiums of 11,000-10,500 yuan/mt as of September 7, averaging at 10,250 yuan/mt, which was down 250 yuan/mt from a day ago.

In Tianjin, #0 zinc ingot was mostly traded at 25,600-25,810 yuan/mt, Zijin zinc 25,750-25,880 yuan/mt, and Huludao zinc 30,260 yuan/mt.

From August 15 to August 21, the copper scrap throughput of East China Nonferrous Metals City was about 17,100 mt, a week-on-week increase of 33.11%.

SHFE and LME aluminium prices rose boosted by the news of the production reduction of overseas aluminium smelters. Around noon time, SHFE aluminium has already outperformed SHFE zinc with a gain of more than 4%. LME aluminium stayed on the upward trajectory as well and once recorded an increase of more than 2%.

The most-traded stainless steel futures has fallen for two consecutive days after fluctuating sideways for quite some time. It once fell by more than 3% in the day session today, and finally closed the day with a loss of 2.84%.

The spot prices of industrial grade-0 lithium carbonate gained 1,000 yuan/mt to 453,000-458,000 yuan/mt, with its average price up 1,000 yuan/mt in a single day to stand at 455,500 yuan/mt.

The light rare earth market extended the weakness today, with prices of PrNd oxide and alloy falling further. Separation companies were not very enthusiastic in making offers. The mainstream prices of PrNd oxide stood at 770,000-780,000 yuan/mt.

From July 25, 2022, to July 31, the throughput of copper scrap in the East China Nonferrous Metals Market was 8,300 mt, down 1.72% WoW.

On the macro front, last week, the US Fed raised the interest rate by 75 basis points to 2.50% as expected, boosting the nonferrous metal prices.