Codelco is offering to sell the metal at a record premium of $325 a tonne to its European customers next year, a 39% jump from this year, according to three copper market sources.
Premiums set by Codelco for physical delivery of copper are paid on top of the London Metal Exchange contract and are often used as a benchmark for global contracts for the metal used in the power and construction industries.
State-owned Codelco declined to comment.
The record high premium is due to fears of copper shortages next year, which recently pushed LME copper to a 16-month high of $11,000 a ton last week. It was around $10,600 on Thursday.
Miner Freeport-McMoRan last month declared force majeure at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia, the world’s second-largest copper mine, after a mudslide. There has also been disruption at the Kamoa-Kakula mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo and at Chile’s El Teniente mine this year.
Europe’s biggest copper smelter Aurubis will also charge European customers a record premium at $315 a ton for refined copper next year, according to market sources.
(Reporting by Pratima Desai; Editing by Louise Heavens)
