Last week, the premiums showed a continuous downward trend. As the delivery day approached, some sellers actively lowered prices amid large price difference between the SHFE front-month copper contract and the SHFE next-month copper contract. This, combined with the inflow of cheap imported copper, pushed down spot premiums sharply. As of Friday June 9, the spot premiums for high-quality copper dropped 200 yuan/mt from two Fridays ago to 120 yuan/mt, and the premiums for standard-quality copper stood at 100 yuan/mt, a drop of 200 yuan/mt.
Hydro-copper was quoted with premiums of 40 yuan/mt, a decline of 210 yuan/mt from a week earlier. With a large volume of customs clearance of imported copper last week, the price spread between hydro-copper and standard-quality copper widened.
Last Friday, the prices in Shanghai exceeded those in Guangdong by 200 yuan/mt. The price gap between the two regions widened. As of last Friday, total inventories in Guangdong stood at 32,000 mt, a decline of 1,100 mt from a week earlier.
Arriving shipments increased 1,900 mt to 14,500 mt due mainly to increased arriving shipments of imported copper, still below the weekly average of 19,000 mt for 2022. Shipments leaving Guangdong stood at 15,400 mt last week, an increase of 1,000 mt from a week earlier due to shipments of imported copper, still lower than the weekly average of 19,500 for 2022. According to SMM survey, the actual downstream consumption last week underperformed that of the prior week. Some copper rod plants cut output as the wider price spread between copper rod produced with copper cathode and with copper scrap weakened demand for the first.
