Chinese spot price of 1# refined copper (Cu:≥99.95%) decreased by Yuan 123/tonne day on day to Yuan 68,593/tonne on December 19, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Specifically, spot prices of 1# refined copper in Shanghai under Mysteel's tracking decreased by Yuan 35/tonne day on day to average at Yuan 68,690/tonne, running in the range of Yuan 68,580-68,800/tonne. Moreover, its spot premium rose by Yuan 115/tonne day on day to Yuan 240/tonne.
Refined copper transactions in China remained flat today. During the early trading period, higher quality copper (e.g. 3C-P) was quoted at a premium of Yuan 200-220/tonne in the Shanghai market, while others were quoted at a premium of Yuan 140/tonne, and were therefore sold quickly. But then the spot in the market became scarce and traders raised their quotation significantly. For example, the price of 3C-P rose to a premium of Yuan 300-310/tonne. In the face of the sudden rise in the spot premium, the downstream was still cautious, so transactions did not rebound. However, due to the recent arrival of imported copper, the spot premium was difficult to maintain at a high level.
The transactions of refined copper rods improved slightly in China's main markets today. As copper prices continued to fall, the price advantage of domestic downstream cable producers was highlighted. As a result, the pace of transactions accelerated, but the overall increase in trading volume was relatively limited. Processing enterprises in East China reduced processing fees to promote transactions. According to Mysteel's survey, small and medium-sized processing enterprises in East China obtained orders of about 400-800 tonnes today, while large-sized processing enterprises sold about 1,000 tonnes.
The transaction performance of the secondary copper rod market did not show a significant improvement. Quotations of some enterprises were almost the same as yesterday. The price spread between refined and secondary copper rods narrowed as copper prices declined today. According to Mysteel's survey, the new orders received by processing enterprises in South China today were generally 100-200 tonnes.
Copper scrap transactions in China were also sluggish today. As copper prices declined slightly, upstream traders had lower profit margins. Therefore, their willingness to sell weakened. Most of the downstream enterprises mainly maintained daily production, and their willingness to replenish the inventory was not strong, so they held a wait-and-see attitude.
Written by Claudia Jin, jinzheyuan@mysteel.com
Edited by Paula Xu, xuzhongping@mysteel.com