Facing raw material crunch, China's copper smelters lobby for blending licenses

Amid a hot market for copper, China's smelters are jumping in on a profitable niche business dominated by traders.

Eight major copper smelting and mining companies - China Gold, China Copper, Baiyin, Daye, Yantai Guoxing, Jinchuan, Minmetals and Nanguo - are lobbying for licenses to import and process complex concentrate, Fastmarkets has learned.     
In a race to receive final approval from the Customs Agency, many are confident they will get the green light in the coming few months, several sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. 
Any new blending license could reverse China's stringent import thresholds for arsenic, bismuth and fluorine in metal concentrate that have been in place since 2006 and shaped the markets for copper and zinc trading.

It also has the potential to disrupt business models of major commodity traders, who are currently able...

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