Copper smelters struggling with record low treatment and refining charges (TCs/RCs) won’t be able to look to the Cobre Panama mine to ease market tightness any time soon.

This guide explores current price trends, breaks down the key copper scrap grades and provides a global outlook for 2025.

There’s broad agreement that DeepSeek has upended the artificial intelligence (AI) sector by developing a cutting-edge large language model that uses less computational power, but whether improved AI efficiency cuts demand for copper in the data centers used to power it is a matter of debate.

After a consultation period, Fastmarkets is increasing the publication frequency of two copper concentrates index coefficients — MB-CU-0422 copper concentrates counterparty spread and MB-CU-0423 copper concentrates Co-VIU — from monthly to fortnightly.

Over a decade since its first attempt, Glencore appears to have taken another tilt at Rio Tinto.

Participants in the market for copper scrap and blister in China, the world’s largest importer of copper raw materials, expect there to be fiercer competition for material in 2025, industry sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Thursday January 9.

Africa’s first transcontinental rail network, known as the Lobito Corridor, which aims to eventually connect almost the entire regional copper-cobalt belt with additional links across sub-Saharan Africa, is on track to break ground early in 2026, a senior official at the US Department of State told Fastmarkets.

The availability of relatively untapped resources, a huge influx of Chinese investment and a rapid licensing system have helped the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to become one of the world’s three key producers of copper.

There has been a freefall in copper concentrates treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) this year amid tighter supply in the market. In 2025, supply tightness is projected to keep copper concentrates TC/RCs low on average for the whole year, sources told Fastmarkets.

The publication of Fastmarkets’ Shanghai copper premiums on Monday December 23 were delayed because of a reporter error. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated.