China’s top copper smelters agreed to price guidance for processing charges in the first quarter of 2025 that was lower than this quarter’s guidance, industry sources said on Thursday, reflecting a lingering shortage of copper concentrates.
Smelter representatives at a meeting of the China Smelters Purchase Team in the commercial hub of Shanghai reached agreement on new guidance for copper concentrate processing treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) at $25 per metric ton and 2.5 cents per pound, said four sources with knowledge of the matter.
That was down 28.6% from the fourth-quarter guidance of $35 per ton and 3.5 cents per pound.
TC/RCs, a key source of revenue for smelters, are a gauge of the availability of copper concentrates used in the production of refined copper.
The charges tend to fall when ore supply declines and rise when more concentrate is available.
However, the quarterly guidance rates were higher than the 2025 annual benchmark of $21.25 a ton and 2.125 cents per pound that was settled between Chilean miner Antofagasta and leading Chinese smelters including Jiangxi Copper earlier this month.
Many attendees said they did not have much demand for spot copper cargoes either because they had sufficient supply or had plans for equipment maintenance, said two of the sources.
The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
(By Amy Lv, Violet Li and Florence Tan; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kate Mayberry)
