New Addition! "Jintun" Copper Cathode Included in SMM Premium Copper Price Collection Range [SMM Analysis]

In recent years, the brands included in the SMM premium copper price collection range were traditional thick plates circulating mainly in Shanghai and high-quality brands from Codelco, such as Guixi, Jinchuan (plate), ENM, CCC-P, etc. This differs from the SHFE definition of premium copper eligible for a 50 yuan/mt premium delivery subsidy. With industry development and changes in market acceptance, SMM will include the mainstream transaction prices of the "Jintun" brand in the SMM premium copper price collection system starting from the first trading day of 2025.

Company Strength

Jinlong Copper Co., Ltd. is a Sino-foreign joint venture established by Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co., Ltd., Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd., Sumitomo Corporation, and Chalco Guangxi Branch, with a registered capital of 802.038 million yuan. The company was founded in 1992 and put into operation in 1997. It is China's first flash smelting copper plant independently designed and constructed. The original design capacity was an annual production of 100,000 mt of copper cathode, 375,000 mt of sulphuric acid, and by-products such as gold and silver. After three rounds of capacity expansion, the company's production scale gradually increased, reaching an annual capacity of 450,000 mt of copper cathode and 1.2 million mt of sulphuric acid by 2012.

Brand Introduction

Jinlong Copper currently has two copper cathode brands, "Jintun" and "TG-JL," both registered at LME and SHFE. The "Jintun" brand is produced by a conventional electrolysis system with an annual output of approximately 210,000 mt. Over 90% of the production is directly supplied to downstream customers in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, including companies producing copper cathode rods, enamelled wire, high-conductivity copper semis, and copper powder.

Sales Performance Comparison

In recent years, the sales premium of "Jintun" copper cathode has fully aligned with SMM premium copper. The average sales premium in 2023 was 170 yuan/mt (SMM premium copper average premium was 165 yuan/mt), and the average sales premium from January to November 2024 was -18 yuan/mt (SMM premium copper average premium was -23 yuan/mt).

Based on the above information and the SMM #1 copper cathode methodology requirements, and under IOSCO standards, SMM plans to include the "Jintun" brand in the SMM #1 copper cathode - premium copper premium/discount brands on the SMM website starting from the first trading day of 2025, January 2, 2025.