Mysteel's imported copper concentrate spot treatment charge (TC) index stood at -$237.8/dmt as of October 9, with spot trading remaining cautious around China's National Day holiday (October 1-7).
Smelters continued to procure as needed, prioritizing fixed-price deals. As profits from by-product sulfuric acid declined, smelters became increasingly reluctant to accept index-deduction pricing. However, traders maintained firm offers, favoring index-pricing with increasingly larger deductions, expecting TCs to continue falling in the future.
Source: Mysteel
According to Mysteel's survey, a mine sold 10,000 tonnes of clean copper concentrate to a smelter for November shipment at -$258/dmt. Another mine sold 10,000 tonnes of clean copper concentrate for November–December shipment at -$240/dmt. Meanwhile, Red Chris launched a tender for 10,000 tonnes per quarter in 2027, while Mantoverde launched tenders for 10,000 tonnes annually for 2026–2028. Mysteel will continue to monitor the tender results.
China's average 98% smelting sulfuric acid price stood at Yuan 1,300/tonne on October 9, falling from Yuan 1,369/tonne on September 24, with the supplement to copper smelters' profits gradually weakening.
China's sulfuric acid market is expected to see pronounced regional divergence this week. On the supply side, major acid producers in Guangxi, Anhui, Shandong, and Northeast China are scheduled for maintenance, raising expectations of tighter regional supply. However, weak demand is likely to exert greater downward pressure on prices. Demand from the phosphate fertilizer industry is in transition between autumn restocking and winter stockpiling, with fertilizer producers holding high finished-product inventories and operating at low utilization rates. Consequently, demand for sulfuric acid for essential production needs is unlikely to increase significantly. Overall, regional price trends are expected to diverge considerably. Sulfuric acid prices in Central, South, and Southwest China are likely to find support from concentrated maintenance, expectations of tighter supply, and relatively low sulfuric acid prices in previous periods. In contrast, prices in Shandong, Northeast China, and North China, where prices were previously relatively high, are likely to face downward pressure.
Source: Mysteel
Recently, sulfuric acid prices have continued to decline amid weak demand and ample supply, gradually reducing the contribution to copper smelters' profits. Combined with the constrained copper concentrate supply and copper scrap tightness, Chinese smelters have seen operations limited by raw material issues and worsening profit margins.
Written by Mingyuan Wang, wangmingyuan@mysteel.com
