Japanese smelters to regain foothold for copper business

Japanese copper smelters won negotiation with offshore major miners to get higher treatment and refining charges for 2011 shipment.

The charge is still much lower than basic smelter's cost of USD 600 per tonne. However, the gain could be the first step for the smelters to regain the foothold when ore supply balance gets less tight and the smelters increase captive resources.

Japanese largest copper smelter of Pan Pacific Copper agreed with Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold to increase the charges to total USD 317 per tonne for 2011 to 2012 shipments which is around 20% higher than 2010 to 2011 shipments. Pan Pacific Copper agreed with BHP Billiton to increase the total charge to USD 396 per tonne for H1 of 2011 which is around 50% higher than the level for 2010 to 2011 shipment

（Sourced from www.japanmetalbulletin.com）