By Mai Nguyen and Julian Luk
HANOI/LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Chilean miner Antofagasta ANTO.L concurred treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) of $80 a metric load and 8 cents per pound with Chinese smelter Jinchuan Group for copper concentrate supply next year, 3 sources stated on Saturday.
The charges, paid by miners to smelters to process ore into refined metal, are 9% lower than the 2023 benchmark level, concurred around the very same time in 2015, of $88 a heap and 8.8 cents per pound.
Antofagasta decreased to comment and Jinchuan did not react to an ask for remark.
Worldwide miners and China’s biggest smelters normally negotiate their copper concentrate agreements and settle TC/RCs at this time of year for the list below year.
TC/RCs increase when more supply is readily available and smelters can require much better terms on feedstock, and fall when supply tightens up.
Jinchuan is China’s 4th biggest copper manufacturer. It is unclear if other smelters will accept the very same rates in their settlements with Antofagasta and other miners.
A group of leading smelters was because of talk about the problem on Saturday, stated a source, decreasing to be determined due to the level of sensitivity of the concern.
This year’s copper charges, set by international miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX.N and Chinese smelters, were at a six-year high.
Individuals in the market surveyed by Reuters prior to today’s settlements had mostly projection the 2024 TC standard to remain at or listed below this year’s level.
Copper concentrate supply is anticipated to be sufficient next year and China’s leading copper smelters had currently raised their flooring TC/RCs in the 3rd and 4th quarter to a six-year high at $95/9.5 c due to plentiful supply.
A current ore processing decrease at First Quantum Minerals’s FM.TO Cobre Panama mine due to demonstrations had complex settlements for next year’s charges, sources informed Reuters today.
Unpredictability around just how much supply from Freeport-McMoRan’s FCX.N Grasberg mine in Indonesia will be readily available from June next year after their export allows end had actually likewise developed some problem in anticipating the marketplace balance.
(Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi, Julian Luk in London and Siyi Liu in Shanghai; Editing by William Mallard, Kirsten Donovan)
((dominique.patton@thomsonreuters.com;-RRB-)
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