Jiangxi Copper Corp, China's top producer of the metal, does not expect to increase its output of refined copper in 2014 even though it has the capacity, an executive from its listed unit said on Tuesday, blaming a shortage of scrap material. Consumption of refined copper in China, the world's top producer and consumer of the metal, is expected to rise about 6 percent in 2014 as Beijing's urbanisation plans will prop up demand, the executive said.
The company's refined copper output is expected to stay at about 1.2 million tonnes in 2014, the same as in 2013 and 2012, Wu Yuneng, vice-president of Jiangxi Copper Co Ltd, told Reuters in a telephone interview. "For now, our production plan (for 2014) is 1.2 million tonnes since scrap supply has not risen," Wu said.
The firm brought onstream a 100,000-tonne-a-year plant in the southern province of Guangdong this year that uses scrap as a feedstock. The plant has raised its total refining capacity to 1.3 million tonnes a year, up 8 percent from a year before. But production at the plant has been limited by a shortage of copper scrap and there has been no pick-up in supplies, Wu said. To take advantage of high treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs), Jiangxi Copper plans to run its smelters at full capacity and import about 1 million tonnes of copper concentrate in 2014, Wu said.
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