Description of need
According to the Copper Development Association, copper scrap is a cheaper feedstock than cathode, but it has to be cheap enough for semi-fabricators. This isn’t a quantity problem, it’s a price problem: nearly all the copper scrap gets bought up by Chinese buyers at high prices that the US semi-fabricators can’t compete with.
Scrap is always cheaper (even with Chinese competition), so if US semi-fabricators aren’t buying it, it must be because of the additional downsides of using incrementally more scrap currently outweigh the savings.
There is a need for technologies that let semi-fabricators use scrap instead of high-purity copper cathode with minimal added costs or product quality implications.
Problem severity (1-10)
7
Who has this need
Copper product semi-fabricators. Semi-fabricators are companies that produce copper wire rod, tubes, plates, sheets and strips (PSS) and foil from cathode and high-grade scrap.
Total addressable market (TAM)
Unknown
Solutions today, and their shortcomings
Purchasing small amounts of US copper scrap and blending it with mostly primary cathode copper