Spot treatment and refining charges for imported copper concentrates for Chinese smelters stood at $75-87/mt, and 7.5-8.7 cents/lb last week, up from $74-85/mt and 7.4-8.5 cents/lb in the previous week, industry sources in China said Monday.
China Smelters Purchase Team set the fee of $87/mt and 8.7 cents/lb for the first quarter of 2018, with the spot fees in the past few weeks falling below CSPT's target level, sources said.
Jiangxi Copper Corp. in its weekly copper report said that some of the concentrates that were originally meant to supply smelters in the Philippines and India were shipped to China, increasing the supply of mined copper and hiking spot fees to $75-87/mt last week. Chinese smelters were inquiring about imported concentrates now, and miners and traders were also more active in trade talks.
Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group in its weekly copper report said that the anticipated commissioning of new mining projects in Peru this year was expected to ease the tightness in global supply of mined copper.
Brokerage company Mailyard Futures, based in Hubei province, said that some smelters had enough concentrate stocks till the end of February. Though some Chinese smelters were discontented with the term 2018 TC/RCs inked between Tongling Nonferrous and Freeport at $82.25/mt and 8.225 cents/lb, down $10/mt from 2017, it noted that both the smelters and sellers could enjoy profits at that level.
Industry analysts said that the rebound in TC/RCs was likely to last only for a while because the commissioning of new smelter projects in China and overseas in the second half of this year could exert downward pressure.
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.
