China’s copper buyers are asking Mexican companies to delay their shipments due to port shutdowns because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The outbreak, and the subsequent deferment of copper shipments from China, has resulted in a 10pc decrease in export prices of Mexican copper since January, a trader at Commet told Davis Index.
In fact, Commet, an international supplier of a wide range of non-ferrous, precious and minor metals, exports around 2,000mt of copper per month to China. However, it has shipped less than 1,000mt since the outbreak, the trader pointed out.
The Mexican copper industry expects 100pc shipments to begin this week after the quarantine ends for certain Chinese ports. However, if the quarantine is extended, the operations and exports from Mexico to China may not be normalized until mid-March. Some Mexican companies are also mulling redirecting their exports meant for China to European ports.
In the first 10 months of 2019, Mexico produced 1.2mn mt of copper, up by 20pc from 1mn mt of production over the same period 2018, according to National Institute of Statistics and Geography data.