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China Defies Global Copper Squeeze With Near-Record Production
The global copper market is gripped by fears of a shortage, which has propelled prices to record levels and sparked a $49 billion takeover battle. But in China, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of the refined metal, there’s more than enough to go around. At the center of that conundrum are the nation’s ever-expanding copper smelters. The industry is maintaining production at near-record levels — defying a scarcity of raw materials — as higher prices unlock more scrap metal for processing. Smelters had pledged to reduce capacity after their fees collapsed because of a supply squeeze on the imports ... (full story)