Last checked at 
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a
columnist for Reuters.)
* Copper concentrate treatment charges: https://tmsnrt.rs/3seoHK7
* China's raw material imports: https://tmsnrt.rs/3dXqcax
By Andy Home
LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - Copper's turbo-charged rally
has stalled over the last few weeks as funds have taken profits
and physical buyers have refused to chase prices higher.
London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month copper hit a
near 10-year high of $9,617 per tonne in late February but is
now idling just below the $9,000 level, last trading at $8,910.
Spirits have been dampened by a rebuild in LME stocks, which
have more than doubled to 168,500 tonnes from a February low of
73,500 tonnes. Market optics don't look as bullish as they did.
Yet there is real tightness in the copper market. It's just
that it's playing out upstream in the opaque raw materials
segment of the supply chain.
A lack of mine supply is squeezing copper smelters, Chinese
ones in particular, leading many to take maintenance downtime, a
collective pause that may bite the refined metal market in the
weeks ahead.
ROCK BOTTOM
A lack of concentrates supply has caused smelter treatment
charges to tumble. These charges, levied by a processor for
converting concentrate into refined metal, rise during times of
plenty and fall during periods of famine.
They also determine the smelter sector's profitability,
which is a big problem right now.
This year's benchmark charges were set at $59.50 per tonne,
which was already the lowest since 2011.
The spot market has since imploded further with Fastmarkets
dropping its Asian treatment charge assessment to $21.90 per
tonne, the lowest since the index was launched in 2013.
Mine-to-trader transactions are taking place at even more
bombed-out numbers with Chilean producer Antofagasta
selling 10,000 tonnes of copper concentrate for June shipment at
treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) of about $10 a tonne and
one cent a pound.
China's top smelters conspicuously failed to agree a minimum
floor price for second-quarter purchases for only the third time
in the Smelter Purchase Team's history.
No-one wants to lose face by setting an unrealistic floor
price when individual smelters are prepared to hunt down parcels
of concentrates at such low numbers.
SMELTER ACTIVITY AT FIVE-YEAR LOWS
Smelter economics are complex with multiple variables such
as gold and silver credits and market conditions for the
sulphuric acid generated in the smelting and refining process.
But there is no doubt that current spot treatment terms are
below the global break-even point.
The proof is the amount of Chinese smelter capacity
scheduled to be taken offline for maintenance in the coming
months.
Goldman Sachs estimates that 700,000 tonnes of annual
capacity will be affected in April, two million tonnes in May
and a further 900,000 tonnes in June.
The bank, a copper super-bull, expects this to translate
into a cumulative loss of metal of around 200,000-250,000 tonnes
with the risk that "these planned maintenance phases are
extended if (treatment and refining charges) don't recover."
("Copper - Just another bull market speed bump," March 31, 2021)
This collective smelter downtime is going to occur during
what is a seasonally strong period for demand and may already be
in the mix of drivers behind China's still-strong imports of
refined copper.
Nor is it just Chinese smelters that are affected.
Global copper smelting activity slipped to its lowest in at
least five years in March, LME broker Marex Spectron and
satellite service SAVANT found.
"The margin pressures smelters face from a shortage of
concentrates has been closely followed but activity within Asia
seems highly sensitive to that factor," Guy Wolf, global head of
analytics at Marex, said.
China, however, is where the concentrates shortfall is
having its most acute impact because of the size of the
country's smelter sector and its hunger for copper as the
post-coronavirus stimulus boom rolls on.
China's imports of mined concentrates fell by 1% last year,
the first annual drop since 2011, also a year of supply stress
and the last time the annual benchmark settled below $60 per
tonne.
It's worth remembering that a lot of new smelter capacity
has come on-line in China in the last two years, which should
have translated into rising imports of raw material.
Copper mines' collective inability to deliver to those new
plants has laid the groundwork for the unfolding concentrates
scramble.
MINE RECOVERY?
China's flat concentrates imports last year reflected a
global mining sector that grew output by a meagre 0.4%, the
International Copper Study Group found.
A year of two halves saw mine output slump by 3.5% in April
and May as producing countries such as Peru were hit by COVID-19
lockdowns before recovering from June onwards.
That recovery momentum is expected to build over the course
of this year and the latest Chinese import figures for March
show a strong pick-up in concentrates arrivals after
weather-related shipping delays in Chile.
"It appears that the impact of the pandemic on mine supply
is past its peak," according to JP Morgan, which is expecting
the concentrates tightness to ease over the coming months,
helped by the maintenance closures in China. ("Metals Weekly
Copper Outlook", April 8, 2021)
Indeed, the bank's bear stance - it forecasts average prices
to peak at $9,000 this quarter before sliding to $7,865 per
tonne over the second half of 2021 - is partly predicated on the
amount of new mine supply it expects to hit the market over the
next couple of years.
However, the time of plenty still feels a long way away.
Smelter stocks are low and will take time to replenish, leaving
the market acutely vulnerable to any further disruption to mine
production.
Even assuming copper's notoriously accident-prone supply
chain can deliver more concentrates, the impact on smelter
output is already playing out, which means the flow-through
effect on refined metal dynamics should follow shortly.
(Editing by Barbara Lewis)
