At least nine major copper smelters globally are planning plant maintenance in the first half of 2019, leading to an increase in the availability of copper concentrates in an already well-supplied market.
Like most major industrial plants, copper smelters shut for maintenance every two to three years to complete essential repairs on facilities such as furnaces, which are otherwise are permanently fired up to temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees centigrade for flash smelting.The plan for more extensive maintenance in 2019 comes after disruptions at major smelters in Asia caused a bottleneck in the 2018 copper supply chain. This, in turn, inflated spot treatment and refining charges for copper concentrate, as well as premiums...