Insight
Shandong site visit: key takeaways on China's adaptation to unprecedented copper market challenges
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Report summary
China's copper smelting industry has demonstrated remarkable resilience, achieving 9.5% production growth in H1 2025 despite negative treatment and refining charges (TCRCs) and acute supply constraints. This performance was supported by strategic feedstock diversification and enhanced by-product revenue optimisation as the industry adapts to these unprecedented challenges. In Shandong province, we met with copper smelters, scrap recyclers, and multi-metal processors specialising in gold, silver and copper recovery. Read our Insight to find out what we learned from these conversations, and what this trend means for the copper market.
Table of contents
- Executive summary
- Negative spot TCRCs are impacting Chinese smelters
- Scrap emerges as a crucial alternative feedstock
- By-product revenues provide essential margin support
- Strategic implications
- Outlook
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