African copper backlog disrupts spot trade, complicates annual talks

A massive backlog of copper cargoes across Africa - ranging from concentrates and intermediates to refined copper - is putting a massive strain on the spot market supply chain and its impact is spilling over into contractual talks for 2022.

"My blister copper cargo from Africa should have departed in late July. I kept refreshing the schedule status, but there is nothing new. Our Chinese client is very annoyed, but what can we do except saying 'sorry' ?" a source at a major trading house told Fastmarkets this week.
Last year, an average of 115,000 tonnes of copper concentrates and 60,300 tonnes of blister copper and anodes were shipped from the world's second-largest continent every month, according to the International Copper Study Group (ICSG).
Most of this copper find its way to Asia and Europe via ports in South Africa (Durban), Namibia (Walvis Bay) and Tanzania (Dar Es Salaam), which have been operating at lower rates due to the container shortage that has been in play since this summer. Major copper producers had to roll over the third-quarter shipments as a result.

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