Unlike typical trends, the increase stemmed mainly from gains outside China, Earth-i said in a release. China, which has over 40% of the monitored capacity, saw inactivity edge down only 0.2% to 15.3%.
China’s custom smelters, which take feeds from diverse sources, struggled with low treatment and refining charges. This cut their profits from processing imported concentrate, Earth-i’s report found.
Regions outside China, with the exception of South America, drove the recovery, according to Earth-i. Captive smelters led the gains, slashing inactivity by 5.3% to 10.7%, while custom smelters saw a smaller decline of 0.7% to 15.5%. Captive smelters, those usually designed to process a specific major mine’s ore, benefited from their uptime. They also benefitted from post-maintenance recoveries.
In its metals market review released Tuesday, Russia’s Norilsk Nickel forecasted a 200,000-tonne copper surplus this…
