With major smelters well stocked, bids are close to the new quarterly price floor set by the China Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT). Traders, meanwhile, are also less aggressive in taking tonnages.
Fastmarkets' copper treatment and refining charges index cif Asia Pacific was at $56.3 per tonne/5.63 cents per lb as of Friday October 18 compared with $56.7/ 5.67 cents a week earlier and $54.1/5.41 cents a fortnight ago.
The market remains lively in parts - Chinese smelters are active at and around $60/6 cents. But smelters are predominantly looking to buy as little on the spot market as possible ahead of annual contract negotiations, which are set to start in London in the last week of the...
