India’s copper-making raw material imports stood at 102,678 t in January 2023, which include ores/concentrates and scrap. Imports fell by 9 % m-o-m against 113,047 t in December 2022.
Ores/concentrates
Imports of ores/concentrates stood at 81,503 t in January, down by 10% m-o-m from 90,139 t in December. In India, Hindalco imports copper concentrates for refined copper production.
Chile, the largest producer of copper ore/concentrates accounting for 30% of world production, had paused exports in January and exports from Indonesia fell by 79% contributing to the overall drop in imports.
HCL is the only domestic producer of copper concentrates. It produced 2,264 t of metal-in-concentrate in January.
Scrap
Scrap imports declined by 8% m-o-m to 21,175 t in January compared with 22,908 t in December.
The top three importers of scrap were Jain Recycling Pvt. Ltd. (4,344 t), Gujarat Copper Alloys (2,256 t) and Bhagyanagar Copper (2,084 t).
- Brass honey: India imported 8,845 t of brass honey grade scrap, down 6% m-o-m in January from 9,442 t in December.
- Druid: Imports of druid scrap stood at 5,190 t in January, largely stable m-o-m compared with 5,159 t in December.
- Birch: 2,235 t of this grade of scrap was imported in January, a decrease of 13% m-o-m from 2,557 t in December.
The top exporting destinations were the US, UK and Middle East. Al Qaryan Group, EMR, Scholz and SIMS remained the top suppliers to Indian buyers.
Outlook
Since January India’s refined copper production has increased on a monthly basis. However, the recent data on scrap and concentrates imports indicate that production may remain constrained in the coming month.
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