The export duty on high-pure cathode copper (copper with content higher than 99.9935 percent) is to be cut from 10 percent to 5 percent in 2008, according to the 2008 Tariff Implementation Plan published by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Dec. 26.

   The cut in pure copper export duty will help China's major copper smelters to operate better. Earlier, due to the high export cost of refined copper, Chinese smelters have suggested to cancel the export duty.

   Currently, the self-supply ratio of China's refined copper resource is only 30 percent, with a major part of raw materials exported. Exporting refined copper is only a way for smelters to maintain value for import. Therefore, the current 10 percent export duty has made the export cost relatively high, which has baffled the refined copper export and forced many smelters to sell refined copper on the domestic market, thus adding to the supply there and imposing pressure on domestic copper price.

   Shang Fushan, director of Copper Department of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) noted that there is no big change in the tariff rate for refined copper of other standards, which means that China's backbone smelters that produce high-pure cathode copper will enjoy the benefits brought by the preferential tariff and have their profits raised to some extent.