Copper concentrate treatment charges fell further in mid-February on expectations of tighter supply later this year, which could be reversed now that an Indian court's ruling to restart Sterlite Copper's 400,000 tonnes per year smelter has been overturned.
Fastmarkets's copper concentrates treatment charges and refining charges (TCs/RCs) index declined to $74.20 per tonne/ 7.42 cents per lb for the first two weeks of February, from $79 per tonne/ 7.90 cents per lb two weeks ago. The index has been on the decline since November 2018 due to the low market supply expectations.Spot deals, tender terms went lowerSpot activity was less active in February due to the Lunar New Year holiday celebrated in several Asian countries. Liquidity in February was also absorbed by purchases in the latter half of January when multiple parcels of copper concentrates were sold to Chinese smelters for post-holiday production. For the first two weeks in February, a few spot parcels went to middle-sized Chinese smelters in the mid to high $70s while a large-scale Chinese copper smelter bought one lot of Peruvian clean concentrates of around 25% copper content at a level slightly below...