On April 7, copper prices in both futures and spot markets fluctuated upwards, hindering refined copper trading in China and suppressing spot premiums in major markets.
Regarding inventory, China's refined copper spot and bonded inventory continued declining as of April 6, though at a slower pace due to imported copper arrivals. Maintenance at smelters, coupled with constrained shipments around the Qingming Festival holiday (April 4-6), led to limited arrivals at warehouses. Meanwhile, improved downstream consumption also contributed to inventory depletion.
The copper scrap market saw constrained supply, as some holders withheld sources in anticipation of further prices increases. Limited availability dampened production and sales performance of downstream processors using copper scrap as raw materials.
As for other copper semis markets, copper price fluctuations continued to dominate market sentiment. Though some end-use enterprises boosted procurement of copper semis due to depletion during the holiday, actual demand increases stayed mediocre. Spot copper consumption remained largely supported by rigid production needs.
Written by Mingyuan Wang, wangmingyuan@mysteel.com
