Following a month-long consultation period and several months of pre-consultation research, Fastmarkets will launch a fortnightly price assessment for non-exchange-deliverable equivalent-grade (EQ) copper cathode premiums/discounts starting from Tuesday November 19.
The cif Europe and cif China price assessments will support Fastmarkets' current benchmarks in Grade A exchange-deliverable markets.
Demand and pricing interest in EQ cathodes has risen since China's decision to restrict high-quality scrap metal imports and since copper processing companies began to upgrade technology to deal with lower-grade material.
The specifications for the premium assessments are as follows:
Copper cathode equivalent grade, cif Europe
Quality: 99.9935% min copper conforming to LME specifications; Ag: 0.0025% max, As: 0.0005% max, Bi: 0.00020% max, Fe: 0.0010% max, Pb: 0.0005% max, S: 0.0015% max, Se: 0.00020% max, Te: 0.00020% max
Quantity: Min 25 tonnes
Location: cif Europe
Timing: Within 4 weeks
Unit: USD per tonne
Payment terms: Cash payment, other terms normalized
Publication: Fortnightly, Tuesday 4pm London time
Copper cathode equivalent grade, cif Shanghai
Quality: 99.9935% min copper conforming to LME specifications; Ag: 0.0025% max, As: 0.0005% max, Bi: 0.00020% max, Fe: 0.0010% max, Pb: 0.0005% max, S: 0.0015% max, Se: 0.00020% max, Te: 0.00020% max
Quantity: Min 25 tonnes
Location: cif Shanghai
Timing: Within 6 weeks
Unit: USD per tonne
Payment terms: LC, TT or DP, other payments normalized to cash
Publication: Fortnightly, Tuesday 4pm London time
Fastmarkets hopes to bring needed price discovery and transparency to these markets and encourages those participating as buyers or sellers to get in touch with either
Hassan Butt or Sally Zhang by email at:
pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading 'FAO: Hassan Butt, re: Copper cathode equivalent grade cif Europe' or 'FAO: Sally Zhang, re: Copper cathode equivalent grade cif Shanghai'.
To see all Fastmarkets' pricing methodology and specification documents go to
https://www.fastmarkets.com/about-us/methodology.