China’s 2025 steel demand to fall 1.5% on year, state research institute says
China's steel consumption in 2024 and 2025 is forecast at 863 million metric tons and 850 million tons, respectively.
London copper prices rose on Friday as a US infrastructure deal raised hopes of better demand for metals in the coming years, although the gains were capped by weak consumption.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange advanced 0.4% to $9,459 a tonne by 0718 GMT, while the most-traded August copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down 0.5% to 68,700 yuan ($10,644.73) a tonne.
Copper for delivery in July fell 1% from Thursday’s settlement price, touching $4.269 per pound ($9,391 per tonne) midday Friday on the Comex market in New York.
Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices
Suppliers and steelmakers’ stocks surged after the announcement.
Caterpillar gained 2.6% after jumping as much as 3.8% in New York on Thursday, the most in three months. U.S. Steel Corp. climbed more than 3% and Nucor Corp., the largest US steel producer, rose 2%.
US President Joe Biden embraced a bipartisan Senate deal to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure projects, building roads, bridges and highways in an expanded effort to stimulate the American economy.
“We’ve struck a deal,” Biden said in a tweet.
“A group of senators – five Democrats and five Republicans – has come together and forged an infrastructure agreement that will create millions of American jobs.”
“Biden announced that he agreed to the infrastructure plan….but fundamentally, the current traditional peak season for copper is ending,” Huatai Futures said in a report.
“On the supply side, treatment charges continue to rise and the impact of the state reserves release are superimposed.”
China’s top copper smelters set their floor treatment and refining charges for the third quarter at $55 per tonne and 5.5 cents per lb, up from $53/5.3 cents in the first quarter, sources said.
(With files from Reuters)
