Chinese copper cathode prices up
2024-04-07 16:04:28 [Print]
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 7 Apr 24 - The current copper cathode market in China sees more deals than yesterday on the whole as downstream consumers need to purchase the material to keep production during the Tomb-Sweeping Day period and prices for the material in the futures market keep rising. Mainstream prices for copper cathode in the domestic spot market stand at RMB73,500-73,700/t (USD10,161-10,189/t) today, up by RMB800/t (USD111/t) from yesterday. Insiders expect that prices for the material in the domestic spot market would stay at a high level in the following days.
"We signed a retail order for about 200t of copper cathode today at RMB73,620/t (USD10,178/t) with a discount of RMB200/t (USD27.65/t), but our price for another retail order of over 100t yesterday was only RMB72,820/t (USD10,067/t) with a discount of RMB20/t (USD2.77/t). We signed many monthly orders yesterday. In fact, our monthly orders now could account for 70% of our monthly output, higher than the normal proportion of 50% or so," a producer in Shandong noted.
With an annual production capacity of 240,000t, the producer had an output of 18,000t in March 2024. They basically hold no stocks for the time being.
A Henan-based producer said, "We sold 35t (one truck) of copper cathode at RMB72,725/t (USD10,054/t) the day before yesterday, but didn't conclude any deals yesterday. Today we sold 35t of the material at RMB73,335/t (USD10,139/t) with a discount of RMB450/t (USD62.21/t). We sold copper cathode with an average discount of RMB600/t (USD82.95/t) or so last week as the quality of our material is not very good." The producer further disclosed that it's difficult for them to purchase copper concentrate now and they could maintain copper cathode production for about one month by copper concentrate purchased through orders.
With an annual production capacity of 15,000t, the producer had an output of 2,790t in 2023 and 200t in March 2024, holding 45t of stocks at the moment.
"We signed a retail order for about 200t of copper cathode today at RMB73,620/t (USD10,178/t) with a discount of RMB200/t (USD27.65/t), but our price for another retail order of over 100t yesterday was only RMB72,820/t (USD10,067/t) with a discount of RMB20/t (USD2.77/t). We signed many monthly orders yesterday. In fact, our monthly orders now could account for 70% of our monthly output, higher than the normal proportion of 50% or so," a producer in Shandong noted.
With an annual production capacity of 240,000t, the producer had an output of 18,000t in March 2024. They basically hold no stocks for the time being.
A Henan-based producer said, "We sold 35t (one truck) of copper cathode at RMB72,725/t (USD10,054/t) the day before yesterday, but didn't conclude any deals yesterday. Today we sold 35t of the material at RMB73,335/t (USD10,139/t) with a discount of RMB450/t (USD62.21/t). We sold copper cathode with an average discount of RMB600/t (USD82.95/t) or so last week as the quality of our material is not very good." The producer further disclosed that it's difficult for them to purchase copper concentrate now and they could maintain copper cathode production for about one month by copper concentrate purchased through orders.
With an annual production capacity of 15,000t, the producer had an output of 2,790t in 2023 and 200t in March 2024, holding 45t of stocks at the moment.
