COPPER CONCS SNAPSHOT: TC/RCs remain at 11-month high on increased buying interest

Fastmarkets' copper concentrates treatment and refining charges (TC/RC) index remains at its highest level since March 2019 this week, with Chinese smelters more active on taking tonnages as production slowly comes back with logistics resumption.

A weekly brief on the Fastmarkets' copper concentrate index:
At $65.80 per tonne/6.58 cents per lb, the index is now at its highest level since late March 2019. It is unchanged after a sharp increase last week. A 10,000 tonne Phu Kham tender for April shipment is open this week with levels of trader purchase TC assessed at high-$50s to mid-$60s. Several Chinese smelters are buying clean concentrates at a range of mid-$60s to low-$70s on a cif China basis this week, although by-product sale of sulphuric acid is still difficult for regions close to the quarantined Hubei province. China Copper, owner of Yunnan Copper's Ningde and Chifeng smelter, bought 120,000 tonnes of clean copper concentrates for the first half of this year from a major trading house at a TC of more than $70 per tonne. Chinese copper smelter Guangxi Nanguo has resumed intake of concentrates and cathode production. The 300,000 tonne-per-year smelter declared force majeure in early February on shipments of copper concentrates.
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