Copper production at Southern Copper Corp. mines in Latin America rose 4.9% in the second quarter, but net income declined 9.5% due to lower copper prices and higher production costs, the company said.

Total copper production for Q2 reached 165,369 mt, compared with 157,592 mt in Q2 2013. Copper sales totaled 160,382 mt compared with 149,970 mt a year ago.

But Q2 net income declined 9.5% to $337.3 million compared with $372.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter totaled $1.487 million compared with $1.410 million a year ago, SCC said in an earnings statement.

Copper prices in London averaged $3.08/lb in Q2 compared with $3.24/lb in Q2 2013, SCC said. Operating costs rose to $726.6 million compared with $711.2 million a year ago.

“At the current price environment, we expect to improve Southern Copper results during the second half of 2014 as the low-cost, 120,000 mt-capacity, SX-EW III copper plant in Buenavista [Mexico] will reach full capacity during the third quarter,” SCC Chairman German Larrea said in a statement.

“For 2015, our new Buenavista concentrator will add 188,000 tons of copper and 2,600 tons of molybdenum of additional capacity which will further improve Southern Copper’s profitability and return,” he added.

SCC and US-based Asarco are the major copper-producing companies of Grupo Mexico, considered to be the world’s third-largest copper producer behind state-owned Codelco in Chile and Freeport-McMoRan in the US.

Source: Platts