Muted copper concentrate trading, TCs awaiting guidance from CIIE

As of November 3, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index (Weekly) stood at $85.03/mt, $0.26/mt lower than a week earlier.Spot purchases by some Chinese smelters decreased, muting spot trading of copper concentrates. TCs for imported copper concentrates are awaiting guidance of China International Import Expo this week. The pricing coefficient of Cu 20% copper concentrate was 88.5-89.5%.

SMM understood that a smelter purchased 10,000 mt of mixed ore from domestic ports with TCs in the low $90s during the week. The smelter will still need to purchase 20,000 mt of spot clean ore during the year, with inquiry around $85/mt. Recently, a smelter in north-west China purchased several thousand mt of Ray, Carmen, Andina and Collahuasi copper concentrates on the market with TCs from $85/mt to mid-to-high $80s.Spot TCs fell to $85/mt.It is expected that the CIIE and the CESCO meeting this week will recover copper concentrate trading.

According to foreign media, Panamanian lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday that originally aimed to cancel First Quantum’s contract with Panamanian authorities for the Cobre Panama copper mine.However, the revised law prohibits all future mining concessions, including the exploration, mining and transportation of minerals, and the renewal of contracts in Panama.This move means that the Supreme Court of Panama will decide that Law 406 is unconstitutional. A referendum was previously planned, but since the Parliament has ruled that the law is unconstitutional, there will be no subsequent referendum.

According to SMM statistics, the inventory of copper concentrate at seven Chinese ports was 933,000 mt as of November 3, a decline of 111,000 mt from a week earlier. Jinzhou port accounted for most of the reduction with a weekly drop of 51,000 mt.