FIRST QUARTER 2020
VOLUME 10 |1
See Directory pp21-23
THE MARKETPLACE LEADER AND A NAME YOU CAN TRUST IN
CONTINUOUS CAST COPPER ROD • Equipment that is easy to operate and maintain with low operating cost. • Largest technology pool in the industry sharing know how and improvements since 1969. • 50% of the worlds ETP copper rod is produced on an SCR System. • The only supplier in this market that operates the same equipment it sells. SCR Technologies One Southwire Drive Carrollton, GA 30119, U.S.A.
Phone: 770-832-4108 Fax: 770-838-6600
Visit us at: www.southwire.com/SCR.htm Email: scrsales@southwire.com
©2015 Southwire Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ® Registered Trademark of Southwire Company, LLC.
www.copperworldwide.com
n Key Words: COVID-19 effect Scrap flows E-scrap outlook n News: Mine forecasts Recycled trade Smelter updates Key appointees n Electrorefining: Anode makeup Capacities Market n Tube and wire: Suppliers and processes n Primary: Zijin profile Steam drying n Energy Efficiency: Smelt well Renewables n Rolling: Turkey and Taiwan contracts n Events: Cesco / WCC Wire Tube 2020 Digital Mines ALTA at 25 GDMB work n Contracts: Project plans Appointments MINO mill Amer Xinjiang n Supplier Directory Find what you need in here ISSN 2046-9438
CUSTOMIZED SOLUTIONS In times of rapidly changing markets, you want your business partner to deliver solutions tailored to your needs. We listen. We learn. We deliver: in close Collaboration with you, we design simple customized solutions. Fast and flexible, we implement advanced technologies in line with your requirements. Whatever you envision, we will make it happen for you.
Leading partner in the world of metals
Meet us at
30 March - 3 April 2020 DĂźsseldorf, Germany Hall 7a, Booth B03/B04
www.sms-group.com
CONTENTS | 1
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Key Words
3
COVID-19, scrap and e-scrap updates
News
4,5
Mines and concentrates forecasts; Successful Hamburg shutdown; Deziwa in operation; Recycled copper trade flows; IERC 2020 review; New LME Chair
7
Henry tops at BHP; Mount Isa not done yet; Lualaba smelter; Market data
Spotlight
6
Cesco Week; World Copper Conference; Digital Mines; Alta reaches 25
The Mexicana de Cobre Nacozari refinery in Sonora. Photo: Grupo México (see Page 10)
Inside this issue PRIMARY SMELTING
8,9
The Kumera Steam Dryer in detail; Zijin Mining expansion goes on
ELECTROREFINING
10
Global refinery anode compositions; Refinery capacity trends;
Refined market
The 2020 World Copper Conference coming soon in Santiago. Photo: CRU (see Page 6)
Product Information
21
Glencore IsaMill , Outotec TankCell, PWM strip welder TM
®
Energy Efficiency
24
Kansanshi Isasmelt features; Onsite renewables; Peru can do it
Contracts & People
16
Metso changes; Cochilco cadastre; Llurimagua and Timok plans; Jackson WRA head
17
Mino foil mill for China; Amer Xinjiang project
Supplier Directory
21-23
Always something worth a look here
MELTING AND CASTING
11
Going direct to wire; Saint-Gobain refractory solutions
WIRE TUBE 2020 PREVIEW
12,13
SMS group; Primetals; Properzi; Holton Crest; Combilift items
COPPER ROD SECTOR
14
Southwire pitch; CONTIROD order; Lamifil strategy
TUBE AND WIRE
15
A compact rod line; CAWI in New Delhi
Copper Worldwide Vol 10 No 1
TRANSFORMING WITH COPPER
18
Recognising the GDMB and its work on copper
ROLLING TECHNOLOGY
19
OTTO JUNKER in Turkey; ANDRITZ Taiwan upgrade; Trimming website
SAFETY AND MAINTENANCE
20
Oil film bearing fruit; Fire curtain firm expanding
Front Cover Southwire Company, LLC is headquartered in the United States, where nearly one in two new homes built contains our wire, and we produce half of the cable used to transmit and distribute electricity throughout the nation. More than half of the world’s refined copper passes through one of our SCR® systems, our tools and equipment business continues to grow and our wire plays a key role in the manufacturing of other products including automotive wiring harnesses and electrical motors. (see Page 14) www.southwire.com
4 | NEWS In brief… Antofagasta plc reached a record 770 kt (+ 6.2 % y-o-y) copper production for 2019, as Los Pelambres, Centinela and Zaldívar all increased output. Disruption of fuel deliveries and ancillary infrastructure damage Los Pelambres equated to a 10,000 t production impact. Antucoya labour negotiations concluded in November, equalling a 4,000 t output loss.
www. c op p e r wor l d w i de. co m
New ICSG Directory of Copper Mines and Plants
www.antofagasta.co.uk
Thales and GE Steam Power are collaborating to deliver cybersecurity solutions to power plant operators. This agreement brings together Thales’ cyber knowledge and GE’s expertise in the power generation industry to help protect customers from cyber risks by providing threat intelligence, joint training and a combined portfolio of cyber solutions. www.genewsroom.com www.thalesgroup.com
According to Antaike Copper & Copper Fabrication Monthly No. 276, Chinese domestic copper concentrate production was 1.549 Mt (- 0.8% y-o-y), while metal content of imported copper concentrate was 5.511 Mt (+ 11.7% y-o-y). The total supply was 7.06 Mt, up 8.7% y-o-y. The demand for copper concentrate was 6.814 Mt, up 8.2% year on year. www.antaike.com
CRU’s Copper Concentrates Team says new smelter projects in China have pushed the concentrates market into deficits. Declining TCs, weak acid prices and premiums, and rising costs, will prompt closures. As the market tightens, the 10-member CSPT group is already vetting new members and may look to snap up distressed assets in 2020. www.crugroup.com
BHP Foundation is, in addition to the AU$2 million already donated to Australian Red Cross, making a AU$500,000 donation to be evenly distributed between Zoos Victoria and the WIRES Australian Wildlife Rescue Organisation to assist with bushfire relief efforts. This brings the BHP Foundation’s total bushfire relief contribution to AU$2.5 million. www.bhp.com
The Copper Mark, the company which will administer the copper industry’s responsible sourcing initiative: the Copper Mark, currently open just to the copper producing sector, had its first board meeting in January. Fabricator meetings are expected to be held in North America, Europe and China in 2020 and Japan and other countries in Asia in 2021. www.coppercouncil.org
Copper mine projects (thousand tonnes). Source: ICSG
The latest International Copper Study Group (ICSG) biannual Directory of Copper Mines and Plants incorporates the latest updates to capacity, project development and ownership for more than 2,000 individual copper mines, smelters and refineries. It’s reported trends reflect production capability and not necessarily production forecasts. In the last 5 years, global mines have operated at an average of 85% of the capacity reported in the ICSG Directory due to constraining factors. After an annual average growth rate of only 1% in the period 2017-2019 (with the notable exception of Cobre Panama), copper mine capacity is
Forecasts made around concentrates Senior Analyst Hamish Sampson has précised the CRU’s Copper Concentrates Team’s outlook on the wider copper concentrates market this year in a mid-January post. Possible stumbling blocks in Chile in 2020 include more than 10 labour contract negotiations and the risk of civil unrest erupting around the constitutional referendum on 26 April. Severe droughts and increased water demand from copper miners are expected to impact costs and output in parts of South America, Africa and Australia. Levels of complex material are expected to return to normal in 2020, but how we define complex concs could be affected by tighter import restrictions in China, which may yet return. With the sharp revision of the annual benchmark, down to $62/6.2¢, the spot market should remain more range bound this year. The benchmark has pushed many smelters towards, or even past, their breakeven threshold. Further, the blister copper market has tightened over the past year as production and trade have been affected by numerous disruptions. The annual benchmark for blister RCs was revised down to $128/t, and the market is expected to remain tight as both primary and secondary feed demand increases.
expected to grow by around 4.5% per year in the period 2020 to 2023, with 90% of new capacity due to concentrates. An average annual growth rate about 4.5% per year should result, with a higher growth of 6% in 2023 when major projects are starting or ramping up. The Directory is available for sale to ICSG member country/non-member country clients at an annual subscription rate of EUR 550/EUR 850. Capacity data www.crugroup.com for copper mines, smelters and refineries may be accessed through Deziwa copper and the ICSG online statistical database at an additional cost of EUR 200/ cobalt mine opens EUR 250 respectively. According to Reuters, the Democratic www.icsg.org Republic of Congo’s state mining company Gécamines opened the Deziwa copper and cobalt mine Aurubis to benefit from Hamburg improvements and processing plant, part of a joint The Aurubis Group reports operating impacts of Coronavirus. The venture majority-owned by China earnings before taxes (EBT) of EUR company anticipates that treatment Nonferrous Metal Mining Company 31 million in the first three months and refining charges for copper (CNMC), in mid-January. The Deziwa of fiscal year 2019/20 (previous concentrates will remain significantly deposit, around 35 kilometres east year: EUR 40 M), meeting market below the previous year in light of of Kolwezi, is estimated to hold 4.6 expectations. After a successful the current benchmark of US$ 62/t million tonnes of copper and 420,000 planned maintenance shutdown at (6.2 c/lb). It further expects copper tonnes of cobalt. Somidez, the joint the Hamburg plant in October and scrap refining charges to remain at venture controlling it, is held 51% by November, Aurubis AG Executive a good level with a good supply CNMC and 49% by Gécamines. A Board Chairman Roland Harings situation. Two additional planned, US$ 880 million project which started said “We expect a considerable legally mandated shutdowns are construction in May 2018, the Deziwa improvement in plant availability and scheduled at the Lünen site for April mine aims to produce 80,000 t of a higher concentrate throughput.” and September. copper and 8,000 t of cobalt per year, Less sulphuric acid was produced www.aurubis.com according to Somidez. due to the shutdown. There Gécamines Chairman Alber t was also significantly weaker Oz Minerals’ West Musgrave Yuma described it as an innovative demand for shapes and flat rolled project in central Australia has the partnership for DR Congo. CNMC products in the period. Aurubis potential to produce 28,000 t of will operate Deziwa for nine years, saw revenues of EUR 2,709 M copper and 22,000 tonnes of nickel with a possible two-year extension, during the period. a year for 26 years, according to before transferring it to Gécamines, Aurubis believes the market’s a pre-feasibility study released on which will operate the facility for a economic trend remains to be 12 February, reports The Leads further seven to nine years. www.reuters.com seen due in part to the unknown South Australia. Copper Worldwide Vol 10 No 1
NEWS | 5
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IWCC TS 2020 spans downstream innovation Here is a papers update on the International Wrought Copper Council’s IWCC Technical Seminar 2020, which is taking place in Milan, Italy from 1 to 5 March. The subject of the Seminar is “The Latest Innovations in Copper Products and Applications”. Of the 28 papers being presented, 1 is on ‘Fabrication’, 3 are on ‘Information Technologies for Materials and Processes’, 7 are on ‘Innovations in Alloys, Foils and Coatings’, 6 are on ‘Innovations in Joining and Additive Technologies’, 4 are on ‘Developments for Automotive Applications’, 3 are on ‘International Lead Regulations’, and 4 are on ‘Lead-Free Alloys’. www.coppercouncil.org
Trade of recycled copper raw materials The ICSG Insight (ICSG SECRETARIAT BRIEFING PAPER No. 17) entitled ‘International Flows of Recycled Copper Raw Materials: The Impact of Trade Restrictions and Recent Trends’, which has been prepared by Carlos R. Risopatron, Director of Economics and Environment, International Copper Study Group, is now available. It covers the impact of China’s recent ban on imports of metal waste and scrap on the international flow of copper scrap and copper alloy scrap. For example, it concludes that as a short-term consequence of the trade restrictions imposed by China, an oversupply of low-grade copper raw materials has been observed in most of the developed economies’ markets of recycled copper raw materials, and now is appearing as imports in developing economies. Further, the January 2020 decision of Chinese authorities to classify category 6 scrap as a ‘renewable raw material’ is expected to be implemented in July 2020. More detailed discussion around the issues covered by the Insight will appear in Copper Worldwide Vol 10 No 2 issue in the ‘A Sustainable Supply Chain’ feature. www.icsg.org
IERC 2020 again highly successful
Surendra Borad Patawari was the winner of the IERC Honorary Award. Photo: ICM
This January some 430 experts came together for the International Electronics Recycling Congress IERC 2020 in Salzburg, Austria. A total of 39 different nations were represented, there were 25 presentations, two panel discussions and three workshops, as well as two plant tours at Müller-Guttenbrunn Group and Montanwerke Brixlegg AG. In the keynote speeches Robert C. ter Kuile, Global Director of Environmental Affairs at Amazon, emphasised its efforts to promote recycling. Professor Dr Egbert Lox,
Senior Vice President Government Affairs at Umicore, then covered the complexity of sustainable mobility. Surendra Borad Patawari, Gemini Corporation N.V. founder, outlined how he expects the plastics recycling sector to develop worldwide. He also received the IERC Honorary Award from Jean Cox-Kearns, IERC Steering Committee Chairman, in recognition of his lifetime’s work. Innovations in e-waste image recognition applications were presented by Hederik Tijs from Recupel vzw in Belgium. Dr Katrin Bokelmann from the Fraunhofer IWKS in Germany presented on recovering material from display applications and PCBs. Dr Mathias Schluep from the World Resources Forum Association spoke on the CEWASTE voluntary certification scheme for CRM recovery. Country e-waste recycling reports from Rwanda, Australia and Brazil were presented. There were also 46 sector exhibitors. The IERC returns to Salzburg from 20 to 22 January 2021 for its 20-year anniversary. www.icm.ch
Huey Evans is new LME Chair
According to the January 2020 World Bureau of Metal Statistics Press Release, the copper market recorded a deficit of 269 kt in January to November 2019, which follows a deficit of 275 kt in the whole of 2018. Reported stocks rose during November to close 6.2 kt higher than at the end of December 2018. www.world-bureau.com
World mine production in January to November 2019 was 18.8 Mt, up 1.1 per cent year-on-year. Global refined production for the period was 21.45 Mt (- 0.6 % y-o-y) with significant decreases recorded in India (down 123 kt) and Chile (down 202 kt), according to the January 2020 World Bureau of Metal Statistics Press Release. www.world-bureau.com
FCX capital expenditure was US$ 2.65 bn (including US$ 1.5 bn for major projects) for the year 2019. Capex for 2020 is expected around US$ 2.8 bn, including US$ 1.8 bn for major underground projects in the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia and completion of the Lone Star copper leach project in Arizona. New Indonesia smelter costs are excluded. www.fcx.com
The LME’s package of new rules and obligations aimed at optimising its warehousing network came into effect on 1 February 2020. The LME’s new Complaints Procedure has been in operation since 15 November 2019. The LME’s responsible sourcing requirements for all its listed brands, based on four core principles, were announced in October 2019. www.lme.com
Gay Huey Evans OBE is the new LME Chair
The LME welcomed its new Chairman, Gay Huey Evans OBE, to the London Metal Exchange on 6 December 2019, bringing significant commercial, risk, governance and regulatory knowledge and expertise. Commenting on her appointment, Gay said: “I am excited and
proud to be joining the Exchange. I very much look forward to meeting and working with members, clients and colleagues to evolve the LME whilst ensuring we retain our position at the heart of the global metals community.” www.lme.com
Smelters resuming at reduced output China’s copper smelters face limited scope to slash production even as diminished demand on virus-related lockdowns raises concerns refined inventories could grow, according to sources, a Fastmarkets’ coronavirus content hub report says. Although
In brief…
demand for the metal has slumped on prolonged factory closures, smelters are reticent to incur the costs of more drastic production cuts. Daye Nonferrous’ 600,000 tpy smelter in Huangshi City, Hubei, resumed operations on 3 February, and plans to
operate at 70-80% of capacity for the first quarter. The CSPT has not announced any joint plans among its members to cut output so far. The next quarterly meeting will be held at the end of March. www.fastmarkets.com
Copper Worldwide Vol 10 No 1
First Quantum Minerals reports its highest ever annual copper production of 702,000 t in 2019, an increase of 96 kt from 2018. Copper production in Q4 2019 was 204 kt compared to 158 kt in the same quarter in 2018. Cobre Panama’s final mill (8th mill), came on line in mid-December, so monthly mill throughput rose to 6.6 Mt with a 25 kt copper output. www.first-quantum.com
BHP’s Olympic Dam copper production increased by 32 % to 86 kt in the half year to 31 December 2019 as a result of the prior period acid plant outage, partially offset by the impact of planned preparatory work related to the refinery. The physical replacement and commissioning of the refinery crane is scheduled for the March 2020 quarter. www.bhp.com