Spot treatment and refining charges for imported concentrates for Chinese smelters dipped to $74-85/mt and 7.4-8.5 cents/lb last week, from $76-85/mt and 7.6-8.5 cents/lb in the preceding week, amid tighter concentrates supply, industry sources in China said Monday.
In November last year, the TC/RC fees were more at $85-$93/mt and 8.5-9.3 cents/lb.
Jiangxi Copper Corp. said in its weekly copper report that Chinese smelters were more actively buying concentrates last week, with deals done at $74/mt and $78/mt, respectively, last week, less than the China Smelters Purchase Team's floor fee of $87/mt and 8.7 cents/lb set for the first quarter of 2018, the producer said.
Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group said in its monthly report that some Chinese smelters lacked concentrate stocks, so had to buy imported ones. It said in its 2018 copper sector report that strikes at overseas mines and the resulting fall in mined copper output last year cut global supply.
China Construction bank in its Monday commodity report said that spot TC/RCs were expected to keep falling in the coming weeks, citing tight concentrates supply.
TC/RCs, the fees paid to smelters by mines, for converting the concentrates into refined copper, are a key source of revenue for smelters.
CCB said though imports of copper concentrates by China in December was higher than the average monthly volume of imports last year, concentrates supply has been tighter and so the December imports were less year on year.
China imported 1.65 million mt copper ore and concentrates in December, down 1.2% year on year, with imports of ores and concentrates in January-December at 17.35 million mt, up 2.3% year on year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
China is forecast to add new national mined copper supply of 134,000 mt/year and 233,500 mt/year in 2018 and 2019, respectively, mainly in the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Anhui, Yunnan, Qinghai, Henan and Sichuan, data from state-owned metals consultancy Beijing Antaike showed.
China's mined copper demand this year is forecast at 6.15 million, up 6% from an estimated 5.8 million mt in 2017, the data showed.
The country's imports of mined copper (25% metal contained in copper ore and concentrates) are forecast at 4.8 million mt in 2018, up 6.7% from an estimated 4.5 million mt last year, while domestic mined copper output is seen at 1.72 million mt, up 4.2% from an estimated 1.65 million mt last year, the agency said.
China is forecast to have a mined copper surplus of 370,000 mt in 2018, compared with a surplus of 350,000 mt last year, Antaike data showed.
