SMM

According to SMM survey, the operating rates of copper rod makers using copper scrap averaged 44.84% in May, down 8.06 percentage points MoM and 7.56 percentage points YoY. (Notes: SMM surveyed 43 producers with a combined capacity of 3.83 million mt/year.) As copper prices went down at the beginning of May, suppliers of copper scrap were reluctant to sell their cargoes, lowering copper scrap supply rapidly. The price spread between copper cathode and copper scrap thus shrank to a low of 561 yuan/mt. Raw material shortages forced copper rod plants using copper scrap to shut down.