Spot copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) dropped in mid-November, with traders starting to purchase units for the first quarter of 2019 at lower numbers.
Fastmarkets' copper concentrate index dropped by $0.60 per tonne / 0.6 cents per lb to $86.80 / 8.68 cents on Thursday November 15. Spot market trade was limited ahead of and during Asia Copper Week in Shanghai where benchmark terms for next year have been settled. Chinese smelter Jiangxi Copper agreed a 2019 annual contract to purchase copper concentrates from Chilean miner Antofagasta with TC/RCs set at $80.80 / 8.08 cents; 1.8% down from the 2018 number and the lowest since 2013. Fastmarkets understands that Freeport-McMoRan, the other major miner negotiating with Chinese smelters, will follow the Antofagasta-Jiangxi deal, as will smelters in Japan. "Other Chinese smelters are not particularly happy with the number. We think it could have been higher. But the Japanese smelters said they would follow," a source...