Ex-China secondary copper scrap prices remained elevated during the week as limited availability met suppliers’ reluctance to sell. LME copper opened Monday at $14,543 per metric ton, later fell to $14,256 and settled around $14,400, while the LME-linked payable coefficient for ex-China scrap edged higher as copper prices retreated.
The pullback strengthened suppliers’ preference to wait for more favorable prices. Some sellers continued to hold inventory rather than ship, reducing spot availability and supporting scrap payable levels. Buyers and sellers also became less active as sharper price movements widened disagreements over transaction values.
China’s market continued to provide an important source of demand. A substantial volume of tax-exclusive domestic scrap has struggled to enter compliant consumption channels, while imports have not yet been large enough to close the gap. That imbalance is supporting demand for ex-China material, although any policy change that allows previously blocked domestic scrap back into the market could ease supply pressure and reduce import demand for a period.
Downstream companies adopted a more cautious procurement stance during the week, but copper cathode-rod buyers showed a stronger willingness to lock in prices on Thursday, and new orders increased. That provided some support for high operating rates even as overall scrap-market trading remained subdued.
Conversely, a renewed copper-price increase, combined with tight raw-material availability and continuing downstream demand, would make a significant decline in the coefficient difficult.
The same supply environment is unfolding alongside investment in copper-intensive electronics manufacturing. Sanfu New Materials’ subsidiary Mingyi Electronics has introduced gantry-line electroplating equipment designed for circuit boards with aspect ratios of 40: 1 or higher. The customizable systems support phosphorized copper-ball and insoluble-anode configurations and are intended for high-end AI-server PCBs and IC substrates.
The equipment has completed technical testing and received recognition from leading Chinese server-PCB manufacturers, while multiple orders have entered production and delivery. Sanfu’s own materials describe Mingyi’s broader VCP equipment as serving multilayer PCBs, HDI, flexible circuits and IC substrates, with delivery activity accelerating in response to demand for higher-density boards.