Against the backdrop of limited market trading before the holiday and during industry conferences, China's copper concentrate processing fee (TC/RCs) stabilized last week after declining for four consecutive months. The Agence France-Presse weekly purchase index for smelters on June 18 was unchanged compared to June 12, and the purchase index for traders also remained unchanged. Spot market trading in smelters was sluggish, with few market offers and transactions during the period from June 19 to 21 before the Dragon Boat Festival and during the industry conference held by the China Copper Raw Materials Joint Negotiation Group (CSPT).
Market quotations and transactions were scarce. Market participants said that at the meeting held by CSPT on June 17, it was approved to add seven smelters to the organization, and measures to strengthen the supervision of copper concentrate imports were being considered, including converting the current automatic licensing system into an approval system. In the trader market, 30,000 tons of Sierra Gorda copper concentrate were sold at -210 US dollars/ton, -218 US dollars/ton, and -220 US dollars/ton, corresponding to the fourth quarter and shipment periods in August-September. Another 10,000 tons of Mantoverde copper concentrate was auctioned at -205 US dollars/ton, with shipment scheduled for July. As of this weekend, the mid-year long-term contract negotiations between Chilean miner Antofagasta and Chinese smelters have not reached a result. Market participants said that Antofagasta may seek to convert the long-term TC/RC from a fixed rate to an index-linked mechanism. After the news of the peace agreement between the United States and Iran, the copper market sentiment remained cautious. Market expectations are that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen, but the regional production infrastructure needs time to repair, and sulfur production is difficult to quickly return to the pre-conflict level. This has affected the short-term sulfur price, which may remain high, thereby supporting the downstream sulfur price. Most market participants expect that this factor will not significantly boost the copper concentrate processing fee in the short term.
