Singapore 17/03/2016 - The ten Chinese copper smelters’ goal to cut 350,000 tonnes of production will be realised, Xu Changning, from Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group’s commercial department, said on Thursday.
But he cautioned that China’s total copper production in the year may not necessarily decline as other smelters, outside of the ten, may make up for the shortfall, according to a transcript of Xu’s speech published by Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) on the same day. Xu was speaking at a Shanghai conference held by the Chinese metals research firm.
Tongling Nonferrous is one of the ten Chinese copper smelters who had agreed in December to cut copper cathode output by a combined 350,000 tonnes in 2016.
The other participating smelters are Jiangxi Copper, Yunnan Copper, Jinchuan Group, Daye Nonferrous Metals, Zhongtiaoshan Nonferrous Metals Group, Bayin Nonferrous Group, Yantai Guorun Copper, China Gold and Yanggu Xiangguang Copper.
China’s apparent copper consumption had risen 1.2 percent to 11.42 million tonnes last year, said Xu, which would mean the cuts would represent three percent of last year's copper demand.
The country’s refined copper production had risen 4.8 percent to 7.96 million tonnes in 2015, according to data published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Tongling Nonferrous is China's largest and the world's second-biggest producer of refined copper, according to the company.