Last week, spot premiums dropped and then rallied. At the beginning of the week, due to the big price spread between SHFE front-month and next-month copper contracts and the nearing of the delivery, spot premiums continued to decline. Sellers began to hold prices firm after prices had been lowered close to the delivery price level.
After the delivery, tight available cargoes and big price spread between SHFE front-month and next-month copper contracts prompted spot premiums to jump.
As of Friday June 16, the spot premiums for high-quality copper rose by 250 yuan/mt from June 9 to 370 yuan/mt, and the premiums for standard-quality copper stood at 350 yuan/mt, up 250 yuan/mt from June 9. Hydro-copper was quoted with premiums of 280 yuan/mt, up 240 yuan/mt from two weeks ago. Last Friday, the prices in Shanghai exceeded Guangdong by 130 yuan/mt, with the price spread widening to 270 yuan/mt at one point. But the brief price spread expansion and the nearing of the delivery resulted in quiet cargo transfer between the two regions. As of Friday, the total inventories in Guangdong stood at 32,000 mt, a growth of 71 mt from a week earlier.



