Jain Resource Recycling has commissioned its copper anode plant and resumed operations at Unit-2 following a July accident. Copper now contributes around 67% of revenue, while the company continues expanding downstream into copper cathode, wire rod and other value-added products. Its Ahmedabad recycling JV will also process motor and cable scrap as part of a planned 72,000 t/y scrap-processing operation.

[SMM Copper Anode Flash] Due to the contraction in China's secondary copper anode supply, SMM smelter copper anode days of inventories in July 2026 were 6.29 days, down 0.41 days MoM, falling to a low for the year.

According to foreign media reports, the DRC government signed an order on June 29 banning the export of copper and cobalt concentrates, with the ban taking effect immediately; projects that meet "strategic" conditions may be granted an export exemption of up to one year upon approval by the Minister of Mines. The DRC had already imposed strict approval procedures on copper and cobalt concentrate exports, with enterprises required to obtain export quotas or exemptions before shipping, so this policy is more a reiteration and tightening of existing controls rather than a sudden, complete halt of exports. According to SMM, the copper concentrates previously exported by the DRC mainly came from the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine, jointly owned by Zijin Mining and Ivanhoe. In 2025, the mine produced copper concentrates containing 388,800 mt of copper, and a supporting 500,000 mt/year blister copper smelter was commissioned at year-end, producing copper anode with a purity of 99.7% that still needs to be shipped overseas for further refining. In Q2 2026, the smelter produced 62,100 mt of copper anode, and as capacity ramps up, the project’s export product is shifting from copper concentrates to copper anode. Given that DRC copper concentrate exports were already subject to approval restrictions and Kamoa-Kakula possesses local smelting capacity, this ban may have limited additional impact on short-term global copper concentrate trade. However, the policy sends a relatively clear signal: as the strategic status of critical minerals rises, resource-rich countries are increasingly focusing on keeping more resource added value and industry chain segments at home through export restrictions, local processing requirements, and tax policies, and the impact of resource protectionism on the global copper raw material supply landscape is continuously rising.

[SMM Copper Anode Express] SMM expects that in August 2026, the overall operating rate of China's copper anode enterprises will drop 0.94 percentage points MoM to 43.72%, among which the operating rate of ore-derived copper anode enterprises is expected to rebound 3.81 percentage points MoM to 67.34%, while the operating rate of scrap-derived copper anode enterprises is expected to drop 2.88 percentage points MoM to 34.07%. (Only referring to the non-captive copper anode portion.)

[SMM Copper Anode Express] In July 2026, the operating rate of SMM China copper anode enterprises was 44.66%, down 1.29 percentage points MoM. By raw material, affected by maintenance, the operating rate of ore-derived copper anode enterprises fell 6.78 percentage points MoM to 63.53%; the operating rate of scrap-derived copper anode enterprises rose 0.95 percentage points MoM to 36.95%. (Only referring to the non-captive copper anode portion.)

Jain Resource Recycling reported Q1 FY27 consolidated revenue of INR27.25 billion, up 76% year on year, with copper and copper products contributing around 67% of revenue. Its entire 1,600-tonne-per-month copper anode line is now operational, while copper cathode, wire rod and busbar projects are scheduled for commissioning over the next two quarters. Its Ahmedabad copper-scrap joint venture has also entered trial production.

July SMM Copper Cathode Production...

Due to tight supply of tax-included copper scrap, supply of secondary blister copper and copper anode in China is expected to tighten further in August. In the week from July 24 to July 30, SMM's weekly operating rate of secondary copper anode enterprises in China recorded 54.05%, and is expected to decline by 8.65 percentage points WoW next week to 45.40%. SMM's quotes for blister copper RCs in China currently stand at 600-800 yuan/mt, and copper anode RCs at 450-550 yuan/mt, both having fallen to the lowest levels this year.

[SMM Analysis: Why Can India Sustain High Bids for Overseas Copper Scrap?] India’s copper scrap imports are rising as domestic supply fails to meet growing demand from power grids, cables and manufacturing. Zero basic customs duty, flexible processing, lower treatment costs and freight advantages support higher bids. However, tight global supply and elevated payabilities may continue to squeeze margins.

[SMM Analysis: High Imports Yet Lower TCs: Why China’s Copper Concentrate Market Is Getting Tighter amid Rising Purchases] In H1 2026, China’s copper concentrate imports stayed high but edged down YoY, with the pace of imports slowing noticeably in Q2 compared with Q1. At the same time, new and expanded smelting capacity continued to come onstream, and growth in copper concentrate demand outpaced the increase in import supply, driving spot TCs further down. On July 24, the SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index (weekly) fell to -$154.76/dmt, further highlighting the contradiction of high imports coexisting with deeply negative TCs. Looking ahead to H2, stockpiling, feeding, and production ramp-up at three new smelting projects in China will add to rigid procurement demand. Higher production from Oyu Tolgoi, a seasonal recovery in South American mine output, and shipments of some stockpiled ore are expected to support a QoQ increase in China’s copper concentrate imports. However, the resumption of production at Grasberg will still take time, and local smelting capacity in Indonesia and Africa continues to absorb domestically produced concentrates, meaning that increases in overseas mine production may not proportionally translate into accessible supply for China. China’s copper concentrate imports are expected to remain high in H2 and rebound somewhat from H1, but the global supply-demand “hard deficit” for copper concentrates is unlikely to ease in the short term, and freely tradable, suitable supply will stay tight. In the absence of large-scale, sustained production cuts on the smelting side, spot TCs are more likely to show an L-shaped pattern of low-level operation with intermittent rebounds, and the configuration of rising imports alongside negative TCs will persist.