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Friday April 21, 2:17 PMChina's Xiangguang to start copper plant in JulyHONG KONG, April 21 (Reuters) - China's Xiangguang Copper Co. Ltd. aims to start production at its new copper plant in early July but has no time table to start work on its planned expansion, company officials said.Industry officials said the start of the new plant, with an annual capacity to produce 200,000 tonnes of copper, would reduce China's imports of refined copper and raise its imports of ore. "That should not be a problem," an official for Xiangguang's parent said late on Thursday, referring to the planned start-up on July 1. "For the second phase, it depends on the situation." China is the world's top consumer of copper but produces only a quarter of its demand for ore. Copper is currently quoted at around $6,350 a tonne. Xiangguang's parent is chicken and feeds producer Fambros Group, which is also known as Shandong Fengxiang Group. The official did not comment on whether a withdrawal of Norddeutsche Affinerie from Xiangguang's copper plant would delay construction of the second phase. Norddeutsche, Europe's largest copper producer, last year signed a letter of intent to invest in that copper plant, which also included a 200,000-tonne-a-year cast rod mill and a power plant. It said last week it had ended the talks without success. Xiangguang, a newcomer in China's copper industry, has approval from Beijing to build the plant with an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes in China's northeastern Shandong province, a company official said. The same official said last year that the plant would be built in two stages, with the second 200,000-tonne of capacity to be finished as early as late 2006, which would make it the second biggest copper smelter in China after Jiangxi Copper Co. Ltd. . Xiangguang aims to import concentrates, the main raw material for copper, for its metal production. "If operations at Xiangguang's plant are smooth, the fees for sure will fall," an official for a copper smelter in the north said, referring to the global concentrate market. Foreign suppliers are already offering lower fees to Chinese smelters for processing their concentrates as they expect China's imports to rise from the second half of this year. The fees are important revenue for smelters because they are deducted from a sale price, based on world copper prices. The suppliers are offering fees of $80 to $100 a tonne for treating and 8 to 10 cents a pound for refining spot concentrates, against $100 to $110 and 10 to 11 cents a month earlier. |
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