Jiangxi Copper Co Ltd, China's top producer of the metal, achieved its 2009 output target of 800,000 tonnes of refined copper even though production fell this month because of annual repairs, a company spokesman said on Wednesday. "Output has been just over 800,000 tonnes this year," company spokesman Kang Shuigen told Reuters.
The figure represented a rise of 14 percent from 702,000 tonnes last year. Kang said Jiangxi Copper's smelting and refining facilities in Jiangxi province would resume full operations on Thursday after the repairs. He added the current power supply tightness in Jiangxi province was not expected to cut the company's production. "The possibility of cutting power supply to us is little since we are a major company here."
Jiangxi Copper has not yet decided whether it would run at full capacity to produce 900,000 tonnes of refined copper next year, depending on supply of raw materials concentrate and scrap, Kang said. The firm has a designed smelting capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year using copper concentrate as feed. It also operates another 200,000 tonnes of designed smelting capacity using scrap as feed in Guixi city.
The two smelting systems could run above designed capacity and reach a total of 900,000 tonnes a year. It also has 900,000 tonnes of annual refining capacity. China, the world's top copper consumer and the driver of a nearly 140 percent rise on London Metal Exchange copper prices this year, heavily relies on imports of concentrate and scrap for refined copper production.