SMM May 9 News:
Title: Copper Prices Rebound, Suppliers' Willingness to Sell Improves Marginally After the holiday, copper prices oscillated within the range of 77,800-78,700 yuan/mt after a slight rebound, with a weekly increase of 500 yuan/mt. During the same period, the price of bare bright copper in Guangdong rose slightly to 72,200-72,400 yuan/mt, with an increase of 400 yuan/mt.
In the first two trading days after the holiday, influenced by positive domestic macro policies, copper prices rose rapidly. Suppliers of secondary copper raw materials sold at high prices to recoup funds. However, as the positive news was gradually absorbed by the market, copper prices began to pull back, and suppliers' willingness to sell decreased significantly. According to the raw material inventory data of sampled secondary copper rod enterprises, the inventory of secondary copper raw materials this week was 4,750 mt, an increase of 410 mt compared to before the holiday. Currently, the supply of secondary copper raw materials in the market remains tight. The high raw material prices have compressed the gross profit of secondary copper rods to 100-200 yuan/mt. Secondary copper rod enterprises stated that, considering the comprehensive operating costs and related expenses of the enterprises, the sales loss per ton of secondary copper rods reaches 400-500 yuan. Therefore, they limit the number of orders taken daily. In addition, the gradual arrival of secondary copper raw materials before and after the holiday has led to a slight increase in inventory.
In terms of imports, traders in Ningbo stated that due to the secondary copper raw materials that arrived at ports during the Labor Day holiday not yet completing customs clearance procedures, the secondary copper raw materials piled up after the holiday were mainly goods hoarded at customs before the holiday, which were cleared and entered the market after the holiday. Despite the short-term increase in supply, the pickup volume of customers also rose simultaneously. In the medium and long-term, the earliest arrival of US supplies is expected to be in mid-to-late May, by which time the supply of secondary copper raw materials may become extremely tight.
Looking ahead to next week, due to the insufficient supply of high-grade raw materials, which cannot meet the continuous production needs of secondary copper rod enterprises, some secondary copper rod enterprises have decided to switch to producing copper anodes. With copper prices continuing to oscillate, the supply of secondary copper raw materials will remain tight.
