BEIJING (Asian Metal) 18 May 21 - China Copper (Kunming) Copper Co., Ltd., the biggest producer of copper rod in southwestern China, resumed production on May 10 and expects to produce about 13,000t of copper rod this month, a source from the company told Asian Metal.

According to the source, the company suspended copper rod production in late April and carried out equipment maintenance. "We already completed the maintenance in Labor Day holiday but we didn't formally restart production until May 10 as we held inventory of as high as nearly 5,000t before halting production, and we still have about 2,500t of stocks in hand currently," said the source, adding that they expect to produce 13,000t of copper rod in May, basically on par with April.

The company owns a Southwire continuous casting and rolling production line with an annual capacity of 220,000t of copper rod, and it produced about 170,000t in 2020 and around 44,000t in the first four months of 2021. Mainly using copper cathode 99.99%min produced by China Copper's smelters as the raw material, the company sells copper rod to wire and cable producers in Sichuan and Chongqing apart from Yunnan.

Mainstream TCs for copper rod Ф8mm stood at RMB680-780/t (USD106-121/t) EXW in southwestern China this Monday, basically unchanged from late last week.