Jack Prandelli(@jackprandelli):⚠️The world’s copper refiner is cutting back. 🇨🇳China refines about 48% of the world’s copper, 14m tonnes in 2025. Now its smelters plan deeper output cuts. The squeeze comes from both sides. Concentrate is so tight that spot treatment charges turned negative this year, so smelters are now paying miners to process their ore. The byproducts that used to cover the loss are weakening, with sulfuric acid down 11% in September alone. China’s top smelters had already pledged to cut 2026 output by more than 10%. Seven planned 30–60 days of maintenance for October and November. Mines were already the bottleneck. Now refining is too. If China refines less, the world gets less copper wire.

2026.10.23 00:19

⚠️The world’s copper refiner is cutting back. 🇨🇳China refines about 48% of the world’s copper, 14m tonnes in 2025. Now its smelters plan deeper output cuts. The squeeze comes from both sides. Concentrate is so tight that spot treatment charges turned negative this year, so smelters are now paying miners to process their ore. The byproducts that used to cover the loss are weakening, with sulfuric acid down 11% in September alone. China’s top smelters had already pledged to cut 2026 output by more than 10%. Seven planned 30–60 days of maintenance for October and November. Mines were already the bottleneck. Now refining is too. If China refines less, the world gets less copper wire.

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