Indonesian copper concentrate export license resumed, no casualties in El Teniente accident

As of Friday July 28, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index (weekly) stood at $93.85/mt, $0.8/mt higher than July 21. Trades in the copper concentrate spot market dropped. According to SMM, one smelter purchased spot clean ore, scheduled for loading in September, from a trader with TCs of $95/mt during the week. At present, traders’ offers for clean seaborne copper concentrate scheduled for shipment in September stand at $93-94/mt. Inquiries by domestic smelters stand at $96-97/mt. The price coefficient of Cu 20% domestic ore stood at 88.5-89.5%.

According to foreign media reports, Indonesian PT Amman stated that it has obtained the license from the Indonesian government valid from July 24, 2023 to May 31, 2024, allowing for exports of 900,000 mt of copper concentrate. SMM understood that in fact, Indonesian mining companies had obtained Indonesia's copper concentrate export license at the weekend of the week before last, and planned to start shipping copper concentrate at the end of July. After Gresik and PT-Freeport Indonesia smelters are completed in 2024, the Indonesian government will completely ban the export of copper concentrate to meet the country's domestic raw material needs.

Earlier last week, an explosion occurred in the buildout project of Codelco's El Teniente copper mine in Chile, causing a worker to be trapped and the entrance of the mine tunnel collapsed and damaged, but no one was injured. Copper output at El Teniente mine stood at 95,800 mt in 2022.

According to SMM analysis, the current spot copper concentrate market is in oversupply, and buyers' inquiries are less than sellers' offers. The buyers believe that multiple positive factors will bolster TCs. These include the extension of the state of emergency in the mining corridor by the Peruvian authorities for 30 days, the delay of the resumption of smelting capacity in north-west China until early next year as well as the large quantities of shipments from Quebrada Blanca Phase 2 project to China at the end of the third quarter. Spot copper concentrate TCs are expected to peak in the third quarter. According to SMM statistics, the inventory of copper concentrate at five Chinese ports was 654,000 mt as of July 28, a growth of 76,000 mt from a week earlier.