On November 24, foreign media reported that sources close to the negotiations said on Thursday that Freeport McMoRan had reached an agreement with Chinese smelters on the supply of copper concentrate in 2023, and the processing fee and refining fee (TC/RC) reached 88 dollars per ton and 8.8 cents per pound, respectively, the highest since 2017, It is 35% higher than the benchmark of USD 65/t and 6.50 cents/lb in 2022, due to the expected oversupply of copper concentrate.
Craig, analyst at CRU, a consulting firm © Ron said that (before) it was generally believed that next year's TC/RC would be about 80-85 dollars, but in recent weeks it has been raised to 85-90 dollars. The market generally believes that the copper concentrate surplus will be close to 300000 tons next year. This year's benchmark is US $65 per ton and US $6.5 per pound. However, due to the oversupply of copper concentrate, China's major copper smelters have raised their TC/RC base price to a five-year high of US $93 per ton and US $9.3 per pound in the fourth quarter.
On November 17, the processing cost of China's spot copper concentrate was US $85.50 per ton, up 43.7% from the beginning of this year and higher than the annual benchmark. Most market participants expect that the benchmark price of copper concentrate treatment fee in 2023 will be between 80-90 dollars per ton.
The Quebrada Blanca Phase II project of Teck Resources in Chile and the Quellaveco project of Anglo American Resources in Peru will contribute to the increase of concentrate supply. At the same time, Codelco of Chile said that it would extend the maintenance work of Chuquicamata Smelter from the initial 90 days to 135 days.
( Global metal mesh OMETAL.COM)
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