The number of days of copper inventory at Chinese copper smelters was 0.97 day in May, well below the 1.2 days in April. Copper prices continued to fall in May, dropping to a low of 63,000 yuan/mt in the second half of the month which was the lowest for the year.
This greatly boosted downstream buying interest and hampered copper scrap supply. Copper cathode consumption thus improved. The average SMM #1 copper cathode spot premium stood at 175.75 yuan/mt in May, up significantly from 46.58 yuan/mt in April. Smelters sold actively, significantly reducing the inventory days.
