The price spread between futures contracts was wide, and spot trades were sluggish near delivery [SMM South China Copper Spot]

[SMM Shanghai Spot Copper] Looking ahead to next week, next Monday will be the last trading day for the SHFE copper 2608 contract, and the backwardation spread between the 2608 and 2609 contracts remains at a high level of 590-700 yuan/mt. Under SMM methodology, SMM always quotes against the front-month contract, and spot prices against the 2608 contract are still expected to show relatively deep discounts on Monday. As the pricing basis switches to the 2609 contract on Tuesday, spot premiums and discounts will show a notable apparent recovery. Delivery side, as of the morning close, open interest in the SHFE copper 2608 contract was still about 9,480 lots; as of August 13, SHFE registered copper warrants stood at 27,200 mt. Some suppliers continued to register eligible material as warrants, and material will remain partly split between the spot and warrant sides. Demand side, some downstream enterprises have seen a recovery in operating rates, and end-user clients mostly price against the 2609 contract; their acceptable copper price center has moved up from previous levels, and their bids are mostly concentrated near 107,000 yuan/mt. However, this price level is still some distance away from current futures prices, and actual demand release is expected to remain largely need-based. Overall, Shanghai spot copper prices against the SHFE copper 2608 contract next Monday are expected to remain at deep discounts, and spot prices against the 2609 contract will rebound noticeably after the contract rollover; downstream trading and the flow of deliverable material still need to be monitored going forward.

Rio2 Limited’s Condestable mine in Peru processed more than 700,000 tonnes of ore in Q2 2026, producing 9.30 million lb of copper, 4,451 oz of gold and 74,374 oz of silver contained in concentrate. Average ore grades were 0.66% copper, 0.24 g/t gold and 3.88 g/t silver. Copper grades came in below plan due to higher internal dilution in certain mining areas, particularly in June, while copper recoveries remained slightly below expectations because of higher oxide content near the base of oxidation. Condestable maintained its February–December 2026 payable copper-equivalent production guidance at 21,500–23,500 tonnes. Rio2 is also advancing ore-sorting trials, a tailings filtration plant and a preliminary assessment to expand processing capacity to 10,000 tpd, with pilot ore-sorting equipment expected to arrive before November 2026. Current reserves and resources support an estimated 14-year mine life.