China's copper smelters band together to strengthen hand in talks with miners (updated)

Antofagasta

Wed 10:58

China's top copper smelters seek to expand CSPT membership, sources say
At least six prospective members invited to quarterly meeting on Weds
Move comes as negative processing fees squeeze smelter margins
CSPT skips TC/RC floor guidance for sixth straight quarter
Update numbers of prospective new members, names of some of the members; updates background in paragraphs 5-8
By Lewis Jackson, Dylan   Duan, Amy Lv and Tom Daly

    BEIJING/SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE/LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - China's top copper producers are seeking to add new members to an industry price-setting group, four sources with knowledge of the matter said, in a bid to strengthen their position in negotiations with miners over raw material supply.
The China Smelters Purchase Team, a group of 16 major producers that traditionally sets floor prices for spot copper concentrate processing deals, invited at least six prospective new members to attend its quarterly meeting in Yantai in Shandong province on Wednesday, a fifth source said.
Expanding the CSPT to include most of the country's smelters could help producers leverage China's position as the world's largest copper consumer to win better deals from miners. A similar logic is driving China's increasingly confrontational negotiating tactics in the iron ore market.
The companies invited to the CSPT gathering include Guangxi Nanguo, Chizhou Guanhua, Xinjiang Wuxin, Bayannur Feishang, Chifeng Fubang and Yanggu Xiangguang, two of the sources said.
Their admission to the group is not yet set in stone, as they need to be incorporated via a formal process, the fifth source said.

SPOT TREATMENT AND REFINING CHARGES IN NEGATIVE TERRITORY 
Chinese copper smelters are in the middle of negotiations with Chilean miner Antofagasta ANTO.L over concentrate supply deals. Miners usually pay treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) to smelters to process their ore into refined metal.
However, due to a shortage of concentrate supply, spot TC/RCs have been deep in negative territory for months, leaving smelters effectively having to pay to process material, relying on sales of byproduct sulphuric acid to make money.
TC/RCs typically fall when concentrate supply is tight and rise when ore availability improves.
During the meeting, the CSPT declined for the sixth straight quarter to issue quarterly guidance for TC/RCs, the sources added.

CHINA'S REFINED COPPER OUTPUT STILL GROWING
Whether an expanded CSPT can help win better terms remains to be seen given the group's mixed track record corralling the industry. Last year it committed to cut 2026 copper output by 10%, but so far the opposite has happened. 
China's refined copper output grew 7.4% between January and April 2026 from the same period of last year, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Reuters sent emailed requests for comment to C&D Inc, which controls Yanggu Xiangguang, a 400,000 metric ton-per-year smelter, and to Xinjiang Nonferrous Metal Group, which owns Xinjiang Wuxin. They did not immediately respond.
Calls to Guangxi Nanguo and Chifeng Fubang went unanswered. Reuters could not immediately find contact details for Bayannur Feishang or Chizhou Guanhua.

 (Reporting by Lewis Jackson, Amy Lv, Dylan Duan and Tom Daly, Editing by Louise Heavens and Jan Harvey)
 ((Tom.Daly@thomsonreuters.com;))