EUROPEAN MORNING BRIEF 29/12: SHFE aluminum up; CSPT Q1 price floor; Concord signs Pumpkin Hollow deal

Good morning from Metal Bulletin’s offices in Asia, bringing the key news and market stories on Friday December 29.

December 29, 2017

By Kiki Kang

The most-traded aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) continued to see gains during Asian morning trading hours on Friday December 29, while that of copper fell back a bit in the last trading day of 2017.

Check Metal Bulletin’s live futures report here.

LME snapshot at 0200 London time
Latest 3M LME Prices
	Price ($/t)	Change since yesterday’s close ($)
Copper	7284	-5
Aluminium	2269.5	-14.5
Lead	2533.5	9.5
Zinc	3295	-10
Tin	/	/
Nickel	12285	-65

SHFE snapshot at 1000 Shanghai time
Most traded SHFE contracts
	Price (yuan/t)	Change since yesterday’s close (yuan)
Copper (February)	55630	-140
Aluminium(February)	15195	70
Zinc(February)	25685	-25
Lead(February)	19175	-75
Tin (May)	144630	240
Nickel (May)	97170	360

Changjiang spot snapshot on Friday December 29
	Range (yuan/t)	Change (yuan)
Copper	55,240-55,260	320
Aluminium	14,690-14,730	320
Zinc	25,600-25,650	160
Lead	19,100-19,300	0
Tin	140,500-143,000	1,250
Nickel	96,250-96,800	1,850

The Chinese Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT) is to cut its purchase treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) price floor for the first quarter of 2018 to $87 per tonne and 8.7 cents per lb, sources close to the matter told Metal Bulletin on Friday December 29.

Base metal merchants Concord Resources will be the marketing agent for Nevada Copper’s Pumpkin Hollow copper project when it starts production next year.

The price spread between higher and lower grades of iron ore continued to widen in 2017, mainly as a result of Chinese’s steelmakers’ growing profit margins.

A major Russian supplier has canceled several deals for hot-rolled coil (HRC) shipments to Vietnam due to excessively low prices charged, sources told Metal Bulletin.