China top smelters urge output cut, raise guidance for Q4 processing charges
Top smelters also seek maintenance extension
Global raw material shortages expected to worsen in 2025
Q4 TC/RCs guidance up slightly but close to nine-year low
Yearly benchmark talks with global miners approach soon
Releads with call for cut, adds details; paragraphs 3-7,10,11,14
BEIJING, Sept 24 (Reuters) -China's top copper smelters called on Tuesday for production cuts, while deciding on a slight rise in price guidance for fourth-quarter processing charges, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Participants in a meeting of the China Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT) in Shanghai sought the cuts and extension of maintenance time in the wake of tightness in the supply of raw materials. But no decision was made, the four sources said.
Smelters in China, accounting for about 47% of world output of refined copper, were threatened by shortages of copper concentrate and falling profit margins after the December closure of First Quantum's FM.TO Cobre mine in Panama flipped global supply into a deficit.
Analysts and industry participants expected the gap between supply and demand to widen in coming years, thanks to massive expansion plans in China and countries such as India.
Although Chinese copper smelters also proposed output cuts at prior meetings this year, monthly refined copper production beat market expectations to stay above a million tons.
China's refined copper output grow 6.2% to 8.91 million tons in the first eight months of the year, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show.
TC/RCs GUIDANCE
CSPT, which groups more than 10 top copper smelters, holds quarterly meetings to discuss market conditions and give price guidance for the near-term spot market.
Participants at Tuesday's meeting agreed on guidance prices for copper concentrate processing treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) at $35 per metric ton and 3.5 cents per pound, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But the guidance price for the third quarter was set at a nine-year low of $30 a metric ton and 3 cents a pound.
The slight increase came ahead of annual TC/RCs benchmark talks with miners, the sources said.
Top smelters are set to meet global miners in London next week for an annual gathering hosted by the London Metal Exchange, while they normally settle negotiations around November.
TC/RCs, a key source of revenue for smelters, are paid by miners when they sell concentrate, or semi-processed ore, to be refined into metal.
They are a gauge of availability of copper concentrates used in the production of refined copper. A higher charge signals more supply.
The upward adjustment in Q4 guidance was related to this month's closure of Daye's plant expected to last for three months, releasing copper concentrate to the market, one of the sources said.
Reporting by Siyi Liu and Colleen Howe; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Clarence Fernandez
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