Copper smelters eye output cuts

Reuters

Hong Kong

Nine large copper smelters in China have agreed that they could deepen planned production cuts next year beyond 350,000 tonnes proposed earlier if prices and profitability deteriorate, an executive at one of the smelters said on Saturday.

The agreement followed a quarterly executive meeting by the producers on Saturday in Shanghai to discuss the concentrate and metal markets, and to assess progress since the production cuts agreed in late November.

The smelters are members of the China Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT) and the bulk are state-owned companies, including Jiangxi Copper, Tongling Nonferrous Metals and Jinchuan Group.

The smelters had agreed that the planned cut of 350,000 tonnes would be the minimum, and could be bigger if metal prices fell further and/or treatment and refining charges (TC/RC) for spot concentrate imports were lower than smelters' costs, the executive said.