REUTERS on MINING WEEKLY | 15 November 2017
“China’s top copper smelters held an unscheduled meeting in Shanghai on Tuesday to reaffirm their position that there will be no shortage of copper concentrate supply in 2018 as the key contract renegotiation season hots up.
The 10 companies on the China Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT) met to conduct a “comprehensive and systematic analysis” of supply and demand dynamics after their return from the recent London Metal Exchange (LME) gathering, an official within the group told Reuters.
The move came in response to views expressed by miners at LME week, held in London from October 30 to November 3, that there will be a shortage of copper concentrate in 2018, said the official, who declined to be named.
A shortage of concentrate is negative for smelters as they have to compete for supplies by charging miners less to process the raw material into copper metal.”
