Copper concentrates treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) in the Asia-Pacific region continued to fall last week, attributed to copper smelters rushing to make spot purchases during LME Asia Week in a tight global concentrate market and amid a number of major refined production expansions.
Fastmarkets' Asia-Pacific TC/RC index dropped to $59.60 per tonne/5.96 cents per lb on Friday May 10, down 30.2% from the one-year high of $88.8 per tonne/8.88 cents per lb on November 30. The latest index figure is the lowest since Fastmarkets launched the index in June 2013. But delegates at the Hong Kong event told Fastmarkets the index has limited room on the downside because the current discount is already close to smelter production costs. Smelters active during LME Asia Week Smelters, including Jinlong and Shandong Humon, have recently resumed operations after undertaking scheduled maintenance in April and were actively purchasing concentrates from the spot market during LME Asia Week (May 6-9). Meanwhile, Guangxi Nanguo Copper is another major spot purchaser in the market having newly adding operation capacity. Guangxi Nanguo Copper, also known as Guangxi Nanko, started up its 300,000-tonne-per-year phase II project in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region of southern...