Spot market treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for copper concentrates rose for the first time since January on Friday April 13 following an enforced shutdown of Sterlite's Tuticorin smelter.
The Metal Bulletin spot TC/RC index rose by 2% on Friday to $67.20 per tonne / 6.2 cents per lb, reflecting a willingness among traders to sell to smelters at higher levels. "At the start of Cesco [Copper Week] we heard people had made sales [at TCs] as low as the high $60s to smelters in March, but it seems the Sterlite situation is pushing the terms up," one smelter source told Metal Bulletin. Vedanta Resources' Indian copper subsidiary Sterlite declared force majeure on copper concentrate supply contracts for delivery to its 400,000 tonne per...