Edson Monteiro
Interim president Paranapanema
Look ing to improve its mark et share in Brazil, Brazilian copper refiner and products mak er Paranapanema has unveiled plans to start mining copper locally through a new precious metal mining unit and partnerships to acquire small stak es in local copper miners.
In addition, the company is trying to develop a new technology to utilize the metals that are extracted in the process of transforming copper ore into metal, such as gold and elements within the platinum group.
BNamericas spok e with Paranapanema’s interim president Edson Monteiro about switching from copper ore imports to a locally mined product, as well as the company’s outlook for 2013 and beyond.
BNamericas: In November 2012, Paranapanema announced plans to invest 30mn reais (US$14.4mn) in a new precious metals mining unit in northeastern Bahia state, to be started in 2014. What are the current details of this operation?
Monteiro: The announced figure for mining activities was discussed back in 2010, and should be revised, but we are still studying the possibility of mining investments.
Our idea is to develop a technology for the treatment of the anode sludge resulting from the copper manufacturing process to obtain gold and silver for future commercialization.
We are currently in a benchmarking process in our precious metals plant to properly define the best applicable technology to do it and to try to develop a plan and a conceptual design in 2013, followed by the implementation of its basic engineering in 2014 and the start of operations in 2015.
BNamericas: In addition, last year the company confirmed it was evaluating four copper miners to form partnerships or acquire small stakes in these companies. Have talks moved forward?
Monteiro: When we started the project to acquire small copper miners we evaluated more than 100 companies to choose the best four. Of these four copper miners, three are currently working with us, and we continue to consider other proposals.
We feed our refining plants with copper concentrate from miners in Brazil, but we have to bring two-thirds of our needs from abroad, mainly from Chile, Peru and Portugal.
By having the possibility of mining copper in Brazil, we could look to a more competitive share in the future. And our company is always looking for a national project. This same model would apply to other metals which are processed according to the domestic demand. Small deposits are not sought out by large mining companies, as there is no scale.
Big miners want large scale projects, however small deposits require investments as big as the large-scale deposits and they are capital-intensive.
On the other hand, Brazilian taxes make copper locally mined much more expensive. The government should have some kind of flexibility on taxes. Imported copper has to have the same conditions as the copper produced in Brazil, but our tax burden is too heavy. Mining has positive variables but we need to calculate them very precisely and search for equal conditions.
BNamericas: Paranapanema expects to increase copper production capacity to 280,000t/y in late August 2013 at the company’s metallic copper production complex in Bahia state’s Dias D’Ávila municipality. Is there local demand for this production?
Monteiro: Brazilian demand for copper is over 400,000t/y. We are serving the market as a whole about 260,000 270,000t/y, with 200,000t/y going to the domestic market. Logically, the other 200,000t comes from scrap or imports. We have direct customers and are seeking the possibility of increasing our foreign customers, but our most important market is the local one.
BNamericas: The company’s cold-rolling plant in São Paulo state’s city of Santo André has expected improvements coming in September, aimed to increase its capacity to 36,000t/y. What are the company’s main markets for its copper tubes?
Monteiro: We serve the gas tubes market, but not the oil sector. Paranapanema’s big appeal is the industrial and refrigeration sectors. But lately we have been studying other applications for oil tubes. On the other hand, civil and industrial construction are our biggest markets. Currently, we produce 18,000t of tubes and will reach 36,000t. Regarding industrial pipes, our installed capacity will go from 12,000t to 30,000t.
Meanwhile, we have had relatively small monthly production increases. Once produced, we have to ensure the placement of these tubes on the market. But slowly we are improving the placement curve according to the demand.
BNamericas: The outlook for the copper industry, whose revenues grew 4.9% last year, forecasts higher sales inthe coming years, driven by new infrastructure projects in the country. However, there was a 6.5% reduction in average copper prices in reais in 2Q13 compared to 1Q13. How does Paranapanema plan to balance the relation between sales and falling prices?
Monteiro: Actually, this balance is done during our quarterly results updates, and done in reais, even though we buy and sell in US dollars, considering that the metal price variation is done in dollars. Our hedge system seeks to protect our transactions from volatility impacts.
Therefore, we always seek to improve our hedge system to protect us. We increasingly seek hedge as a form of risk management, but sometimes it does not work accordingly.
We believe that the Brazilian copper market could be further accelerated, and the current moment is positive, as it promotes small steady growth with a programmed demand that is not too hot. We hope that federal programs will inject resources and enable the economy to resume its growth path.
Source: BN Americas