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The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country’s governing body of all futures exchanges, has granted its approval, allowing three commodity exchanges to launch options contracts for six industrial products over June-August for trading, according to its official post on June 12.
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China’s major zinc smelters have started scheduling maintenance stoppages this month in response to a shortage of zinc concentrate supplies, according to Mymetal, Mysteel’s data collection arm for non-ferrous products. Some smelters have already idled their furnaces.
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Production Summary
(1)
Wet basis.
(2) Reflects export production from South Africa and attributable export production
(33.3%) from Colombia.
(3) Reflects nickel production from the Nickel business unit only
(excludes nickel production from the Platinum Group Metals business unit).
(4) Contained metal basis. Reflects copper production from the Copper
business unit only (excludes copper production
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BHP’s total copper output including concentrate and cathode remained largely unchanged, up 1% on year to 425,000 tonnes in metal over January-March, but it is reviewing the production guidance for the fiscal year 2020 (July 2019-June 2020) in consideration of the possible impact of the COVID-19, according to its latest quarterly report released on April 21.
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Note:South32’s
financial year runs from July to June.
Unless otherwise
noted: percentage variance relates to performance during the nine months ended
March 2020 compared with the nine months ended March 2019 (YoY) or the March
2020 quarter compared with the December 2019 quarter (QoQ); production and
sales volumes are reported on an attributable basis.
Source: South32,
released on
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Production summary*
*Rio Tinto share unless otherwise stated
Source: Rio Tinto, released on April 17
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The fast spread of the COVID-19 in the past few weeks have forced some metallurgical mining companies to either slow down or to completely suspend their operations, as many countries where their mining sites are located have adopted the harsh measure of lockdowns to curtail the virus from infecting more citizens and to prevent their medical systems from collapses.
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Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd (MCC), China’s largest construction and engineering service provider, saw its business model further diversifying from the traditional metallurgical projects in 2019, as the revenue from the sector decreased to 22.5% of the total from the 25.1% for 2018, according to the company’s latest annual report released on April 1.
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Glencore, a multinational energy and mineral producer, has been forced to join many other mining companies to idle its nonferrous and coal operations in several countries to cooperate with the respective countries’ efforts in containing the COVID-19, according to a company release on the afternoon of March 26 Central European Timezone.
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In a move seen as boosting trading activity and delivery volumes, the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) intends to temporarily waive physical delivery fees on all its listed commodities beginning April 10 until January 8 next year, according to a SHFE notice on March 17.
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The Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) headquartered in Northeast China’s Liaoning province is progressing with the launch of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) futures and options contracts, Mysteel Global has learned. The exchange is currently collecting public feedback about the contract designs and will accept submissions until March 13.
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China Hongqiao Group, the country’s leading aluminum producer headquartered in East China’s Shandong province and listed in Hong Kong, has recently secured the financing for its second-phase alumina expansion in Indonesia to double the capacity to 2 million tonnes/year by the end of 2020, market sources confirmed on Friday.
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Unit cost at BHP’s core copper ore operation, its Escondida mine in North Chile, declined 6% on year to $1.1/lb for the first half of FY 2020 (July-December 2019), according to its financial report released on February 18.
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Brazilian mining giant Vale, a top iron ore producer and the world’s largest nickel producer, saw a 15% year-on-year decline in its finished nickel production during 2019 at 208,000 tonnes, mainly due to operation interruptions and lower processing rates at some works. However, Vale predicts stable nickel production this year at 200,000-210,000 tonnes, according to its latest quarterly report released on February 11 Brazilian time.
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BHP’s copper production posted a year-on-year increase of 7% during the first half of the company’s 2020 fiscal year ending December 31, with total output reaching 885,000 tonnes. However, for now the company is maintaining its copper production guidance for the full 2020 business year (ending June 30, 2020) unchanged at 1.71-1.82 million tonnes, according to its latest quarterly production report released on January 21.
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Alcoa Corporation, a global producer of bauxite, alumina and aluminum, expects its aluminum shipments to rise this year as it believes global aluminum demand will increase, according to the company’s latest Q4 and full-year 2019 results published on January 15 local time. But the Pennsylvania-headquartered firm expects a supply surplus too, it admitted.
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Production Summary
Note: South32’s financial year runs
from July to June.
Unless otherwise
noted: percentage variance relates to performance during the half year ended
December 2019 compared with the half year ended December 2018 (HoH) or the
December 2019 quarter compared with the September 2019 quarter (QoQ);
production and sales volumes are reported on an attributable basis.
Source:
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Jiangxi Copper Co, one of China’s leading copper conglomerates based in Southeast China’s Jiangxi province, plans to acquire some 18% of Canada’s First Quantum Minerals (FQM) to become its largest shareholder, according to Jiangxi Copper’s December 10 release. Market sources suggested to Mysteel Global the Chinese smelter may be aiming to secure stable supplies of upstream feeds.
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East China’s Shandong province will idle and scrap some 2 million tonnes/year of primary aluminum smelting capacity so that Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group, purportedly the world’s largest aluminum smelter, can proceed with plans formalised last month to build a 2 million tonnes/year primary smelter in Southwest China’s Yunnan province. Weiqiao had signed a formal agreement with Yunnan local government on October 15, as Mysteel Global reported.
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China’s three major copper smelters have reached an agreement on November 20 with Freeport-McMoRan (Freeport), a leading copper mining company in the world on the 2020 copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) at $62/t or a new low since 2013, market sources commented.
