Chinese copper cathode market sees few deals
2024-04-03 11:19:46 [Print]
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 3 Apr 24 - In spite of high prices in the futures market, deals concluded by most Chinese copper cathode suppliers today are fewer than yesterday as downstream consumers are inactive in placing orders. Mainstream prices of Chinese copper cathode stand at RMB72,700-72,900/t (USD10,053-10,080/t) now, up by RMB100/t (USD13.83/t) from yesterday. Insiders expect that mainstream prices for the material in the domestic spot market would continue to stand at a high level in the fowling days.
A producer in Zhejiang said, "We only received three enquiries this morning and totally sold about 1,000t of copper cathode at RMB72,900/t (USD10,080/t) today with a discount of RMB50/t (USD6.91/t) or so, while our price for about 2,000t of the material was RMB72,750/t (USD10,059/t) yesterday with a discount of RMB55/t (USD7.61/t). Most of our deals yesterday were concluded on the morning with almost no deals on the afternoon." According to the producer, as the current consumption is still limited, they still need to watch the market and will decide their price based on market conditions but with no plan to cut production in short term.
With an annual production capacity of 540,000t, the producer had an output of 45,000t in March, holding 3,000t of stocks for the time being.
"It's possible for us to cut copper cathode production owing to limited consumption and few deals in the current market in spite of relatively high prices. We sold 20-30t of copper cathode at RMB72,900/t (USD10,080/t) this morning, but only received few enquiries this afternoon after the futures prices rose. Today's spot market becomes worse than yesterday, when we sold about 100t of copper cathode at around RMB72,730/t (USD10,057/t) with a discount of RMB40/t (USD5.53/t)," a Shandong-based producer noted.
With an annual production capacity of 200,000t, the producer produced 3,000t in April, holding 500t of stocks at the moment.
A producer in Zhejiang said, "We only received three enquiries this morning and totally sold about 1,000t of copper cathode at RMB72,900/t (USD10,080/t) today with a discount of RMB50/t (USD6.91/t) or so, while our price for about 2,000t of the material was RMB72,750/t (USD10,059/t) yesterday with a discount of RMB55/t (USD7.61/t). Most of our deals yesterday were concluded on the morning with almost no deals on the afternoon." According to the producer, as the current consumption is still limited, they still need to watch the market and will decide their price based on market conditions but with no plan to cut production in short term.
With an annual production capacity of 540,000t, the producer had an output of 45,000t in March, holding 3,000t of stocks for the time being.
"It's possible for us to cut copper cathode production owing to limited consumption and few deals in the current market in spite of relatively high prices. We sold 20-30t of copper cathode at RMB72,900/t (USD10,080/t) this morning, but only received few enquiries this afternoon after the futures prices rose. Today's spot market becomes worse than yesterday, when we sold about 100t of copper cathode at around RMB72,730/t (USD10,057/t) with a discount of RMB40/t (USD5.53/t)," a Shandong-based producer noted.
With an annual production capacity of 200,000t, the producer produced 3,000t in April, holding 500t of stocks at the moment.
