Head of China Smeltery Purchase Team (CSPT) Yang Jun disclosed to Xinhua on June 13 that all the eight copper smelteries under CSPT have agreed to voluntarily cut their production by 10 per cent if the copper concentrate processing charges fail to reach a reasonable level in the second half of this year. The smelteries demand that the treatment charge and refining charge for spot imported copper concentrates should not be lower than US$100 per ton and 10 US cents per pound respectively.

The smelteries also urge the Chinese Ministry of Commerce not to issue import permits for contracts with a price lower than the bottom line demanded by them.

Processing charges, namely the fees paid by copper concentrate suppliers to smelteries, are the principal source of smelteries' profits.