China's top smelter, Jiangxi Copper Co Ltd, said bad weather in southern China has had a material impact on operations, affecting its production volume in this quarter.
Ice and snow storms across central and southern China have forced shutdowns or production cuts in hundreds of Chinese metal firms, supporting metals prices on expectations that the world's top consumer will need to import more.
"Apart from the Yongping copper mine, the whole or at least half of the production activities of the copper mines of the company in Jiangxi Province have ceased," the company said in a statement late on Monday. Jiangxi Copper's Hong Kong-listed shares were down nearly 4 percent on Tuesday morning, lagging a 1.45 percent drop in the benchmark index. China's top integrated copper producer said its copper smelting factory could only produce at 60 to 70 percent of capacity while output at other copper processing enterprises is limited.
"Production of the company is expected to resume to normal if there is improvement in the external electricity supply and transportation," the company added. Jiangxi Copper, which accounted for 16 percent of China's refined copper production in 2007, had said last week that it would shut down 43 percent of its smelting capacity, becoming the latest smelter to face output disruptions amid power shortages and transport chaos.
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