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Base metals like copper, aluminium, nickel and alumina are some of the world’s most frequently traded commodities. With so many forces bearing down on the base metals market, win-win outcomes for negotiations depend on the depth and breadth of your understanding of the market.
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The London Metal Exchange moved to new premises earlier this year, cutting the ribbon on its fourth bespoke trading floor. But with ring-dealing member (RDM) numbers unchanged at nine from this time last year, the new mini-sized ring represents something of a downsize.
Copper inventories on the London Metal Exchange look set to rise sharply from January, as lower contractual premiums for 2017 will make the business of cancelling incoming material and shipping it to China uneconomical, market sources believe.
Nearly three years after the London Metal Exchange took action to get the record volumes of aluminium backed up in its global warehouse network flowing out into the physical market, exchange users have warned that low LME inventories are making the market vulnerable to squeezes.
The price trend for all LME-traded base metals so far this year has been higher, apart from in copper.
Negotiations for benchmark treatment charges and refining charges (TC/RCs) for annual copper concentrate supplies in 2017 will start during LME Week, with a settlement widely expected at around $95-102 per tonne and 9.5-10.2 cents per lb – either side of this year’s level.
Spot copper concentrate sales slowed in the first half of October after a period of smelter restocking at the end of the third quarter, leaving traders free to focus on long-term deals including a $100 million finance-and-offtake package sought by Audley Capital to develop the Mantos Blancos mine.
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