As the Spring Festival approaches, Asian scrap copper demand weakens; Korea's discount rate declines significantly; Japan remains relatively stable

Starting next week, the Chinese market will basically enter the Spring Festival holiday schedule. According to SMM, most logistics companies will gradually cease operations after this Friday, and scrap copper traders will begin their holidays on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. The pre-holiday stockpiling phase is essentially over. As the world’s largest scrap copper consumer, China’s phased holiday cycle has directly weakened the overall consumption support in the Asian scrap copper market. The Korean market has reacted particularly strongly; with demand weakening and the approaching local holidays, the transaction discount rate for scrap copper has significantly decreased. For example, the mainstream transaction discount rate for No. 2 copper has fallen from around 90% to the 88%–89% range. The Japanese market is also affected by regional demand cooling, but since Japan does not have a Spring Festival holiday, end-user consumption and production have not experienced significant stagnation. As a result, price declines are relatively mild, with the overall discount rate only decreasing by about 0.5%. (Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Network)