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BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - China’s top copper smelters will cut production by over 10% in 2026, to counter overcapacity in the industry that has led to increasingly distorted copper concentrate processing fees, according to a Chinese market information provider.
Treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs), which are traditionally paid by miners to smelters, have been negative in 2025 due to tight copper supply and expanding Chinese smelting capacity, leaving smelters effectively having to pay miners.
The China Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT), a group of the top copper smelters, said its members agreed to cut production to improve market conditions, according to Shanghai Metals Market on Friday.
The move follows comments by Chen Xuesen, Vice President of China's Nonferrous Metal Industry association, who said on Wednesday that the state-backed association "firmly opposes any free and negative processing" of copper concentrate.
Chen also said China had halted about 2 million metric tons of planned new copper smelting capacity.
The decision by the smelters and Chen's speech adds to uncertainties amid negotiations between Chinese smelters and copper mining giant Antofagasta ANTO.L over next year's supply contracts, which set a benchmark for TC/RCs.
The CSPT refrained from setting copper TC/RC guidance for the fourth quarter in late October, for the third time in a row.
The CSPT also said it will set up an oversight mechanism to monitor members' spot tendering and procurement to stamp out "malignant competition", while setting up a blacklist system to vet suppliers and assay providers, jointly resisting any parties considered to be “maliciously disrupting” the market.
The benchmark three-month copper CMCU3 was up 0.64% to $11,009.50 a ton as of 1019 GMT.
(Reporting by Dylan Duan, Lewis Jackson and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Joe Bavier, Elaine Hardcastle)
((Ethan.Wang@thomsonreuters.com;))
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