Chinese spot price of 1# refined copper (Cu:≥99.95%) rose by Yuan 164/tonne day on day to Yuan 69,291/tonne on March 27, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Specifically, spot prices of 1# refined copper in Shanghai under Mysteel's tracking increased by Yuan 190/tonne day on day to average at Yuan 69,400/tonne, running in the range of Yuan 69,330-69,470/tonne. Moreover, its premium fell by Yuan 10/tonne day on day to Yuan 70/tonne.
As copper prices remained stable at a high-level today after continuous increases last week, downstream enterprises of refined copper in China have not actively purchased today, but have been cautious. According to Mysteel's survey, although import loss remained wide at Yuan 559/tonne, imported copper was still relatively common in the market, which reduced supply pressure. Therefore, premiums are expected to be weak in the short term.
The trading volume of refined copper rods in China slightly improved but was still cold as copper prices showed hard to further rise. Transactions in East China reached 300-500 tonnes for medium producers and 1,000 tonnes for large enterprises.
According to feedback from China's secondary copper rod processing enterprises, due to the fading of price advantages and the competition of traders' low-price spots, transactions of secondary copper rods were unsatisfactory today. The trading volume in Jiangxi market decreased to under 200 tonnes while delivery in Guangdong market remained at 100-200 tonnes. Orders received by processing enterprises in North China from traders continued to increase.
Transactions of copper scrap in China were not much today. On the one hand, there was no significant improvement in finished product orders received by downstream processing enterprises, which suppressed demand. On the other hand, due to the shortage of copper scrap, higher premiums and squeezed profits were caused.
Written by Edenlis Huang, huangting@mysteel.com
Edited by Paula Xu, xuzhongping@mysteel.com