Operating Rates at Copper Rod Plants Dipped Last Week

SMM data showed that China's magnesium powder production in December was 5,788 mt, up 1.4% MoM, bringing total output from January to December 2023 up to 65,000 mt.

SMM data showed that China's magnesium ingot production in December was 60,613 mt, up 9.4% MoM but down 8.1% YoY, bringing total output from January to December 2023 up to about 709,000 mt, down 25% YoY.

SMM data showed that SiMn alloy production in China in December totalled 843,500 mt, down 8.92% MoM and 2.02% YoY, bringing total output from January to December 2023 up to about 11.2955 million mt, up 12.95% YoY.

The actual solar cell output in December was 61.1GW, including 31.87GW of P-type cells, down 14.45% MoM, and 30.23GW of N-type cells, up 20.01% MoM.

According to SMM survey, China antimony ingot (including antimony ingot, converted crude antimony, cathode antimony, etc.) output in October was 6994.3 mt, down 6.36% MoM. Some market participants said that due to various reasons such as domestic mines’ reluctance to sell and difficulty for imported antimony ore to enter China smoothly in the future amid geopolitical issues, the shortage of antimony raw material will persist.

Operating rates at copper rod producers using copper cathode as raw material rose 12.54 percentage points on the month and 7.61 percentage points on the year to 73.77% in March, according to SMM survey of 52 producers with a total capacity of 12.73 million mt/year.

The operating capacity of polysilicon enterprises continued to increase. Bid solicitation orders of polysilicon powder were delayed due to the low silicon prices.

There have been a few small lithium salt factories in China suspending production and large lithium salt factories cutting output, but the reduced production was relatively low compared with the current inventory of lithium salt factories.

South Korea's semiconductor output fell 17.1% in February from the previous month, the sharpest decline in more than 14 years

China’s copper semis output is estimated at 1.69 million mt in February, up 24.63% month-on-month and 37.28% year-on-year. Operating rates in the copper semis industry stood at 64.63% in February, up 23.48 percentage points month-on -month and 12.05 percentage points year-on-year.