BEIJING: China’s refined copper output reached a record high in March, official data showed Tuesday, defying smelters’ promises to reduce output, thanks in part to a surge in the price of production byproduct sulphuric acid.
Refined copper production in March surged 8.7 percent annually to 1.33 million metric tons, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed, surpassing the record set in December.
First-quarter production also hit a record high at 3.79 million tons.
The rise in volume came despite the China Smelter Purchasing Team, a group of 16 top copper smelters, pledging last year to cut 2026 output by 10 percent to deal with overcapacity and negative treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) for copper concentrates.
In recent production guidance, major smelters including Jiangxi Copper, Yunnan Copper and Daye Nonferrous all planned to raise or maintain output in 2026.
The rise in refined copper output came despite negative TC/RCs, which means smelters effectively pay miners to process the material.
Rising sulphuric acid prices have helped to offset falling processing fees since last year, with the Iran war further pushing up prices of the byproduct widely used for fertiliser and metal refining.
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