Power woes to hit China Jiangxi Copper's output

China's top integrated copper producer, Jiangxi Copper, will cut output of semi-finished products by up to 30 percent in August after local authorities asked it to reduce power consumption, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

Jiangxi Copper, the latest victim of China's power shortages this year, has the capacity to produce 700,000 tonnes of refined copper a year, and imports some copper for its products plants.

"We will cut the production of semi-finished products by 20-30 percent in August," board secretary Pan Qifang told Reuters. The firm has an annual capacity of 370,000 tonnes of semis.

Analysts believe power shortages in some Chinese provinces may escalate in August from July, as Beijing aims to secure electricity supply for Olympics-related activities and check air pollution by forcing small generators to shut.

To help meet the target, provincial governments are likely to limit power supplies to local energy-intensive smelters.

Other smelters, such as Xiangguang Copper in Shandong province and Daye Nonferrous in Hubei province, may also be asked by local authorities to cut power consumption given the shortages there, said Lan Ke, an analyst at Southwest Securities.

Xiangguang has 200,000 tonnes of copper smelting capacity in Shandong and Daye has 250,000 tonnes in Hubei.

"If that spreads, refined copper output could fall by 50,000 tonnes in July and August," Lan said.

Jiangxi Copper would try to maintain normal production of refined copper, Pan said, adding that it would cut imports of refined copper as production of semi-finished products fell.

But a company source said the firm could lose refined copper production by about 1,000 tonnes in August. It produced about 60,000 tonnes of refined copper in July.

Copper production in China turned around and fell 0.2 percent in July after hitting a 7-month high in June, due to power shortages. [ID:nHKG140481]

The country's top 20 aluminium smelters agreed early in July to jointly cut production by up to 10 percent amid short supplies of electricity and in hopes of pushing up prices.

Shi Lin, copper consultant in Beijing for London-headquartered CRU, said China's refined copper production would fall on smaller supplies of scrap and concentrate as strong international prices had reduced imports of the materials used to produce refined copper.

Shi said he expected copper output to fall 10 percent in the July-September quarter from the previous quarter. (Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.