C68700 Aluminum Brass Prices October 26, 2026

C68700 is the first alloy in this series where copper is not the driver. LME 3-month copper finally broke its five-week run on October 26, settling at $14,455/tonne ($6.56/lb), down 0.82% on the week. Most procurement teams will read that as a reason to hold off. That reading is wrong here. LME 3-month zinc rallied to $3,175/tonne ($1.44/lb), up 3.76% on the week - the largest single-week gain in fourteen weeks - and zinc carries 20.2% of C68700 melt. The net effect: C68700 melt value fell only $0.03/lb to $5.40/lb against a $0.05/lb copper decline; zinc absorbed roughly a quarter of the copper drop. At the same time the Q4 power-station outage and retube window has pushed ASTM B111 seamless condenser tube lead times to 7–10 weeks, from 5–8 weeks in late September. If your BOM carries C68700 condenser, U-bend or welded heat-exchanger tube, this is the week to book the mill slot - the copper dip will not reach printed quotes until mid-November, and the zinc rise already has.

Conversion reference: 1 lb = 0.4536 kg. To convert USD/lb to USD/kg, multiply by 2.205. C68700 melt reference is computed as Cu × 0.775 + Zn × 0.202 + Al × 0.0215 + As × 0.0004, using mid-range chemistry for UNS C68700 (Cu 76–79%, Zn remainder, Al 1.8–2.5%, As 0.02–0.06%).

Sources: published LME 3-month copper, zinc and aluminium closes, weekly melt reference prints, China-domestic mill-printed quotes for export channels (week ending Oct 23, 2026). Trading reference: October 26, 2026.

Brass mills do not reprice on the day copper moves. Printed mill quotes on brass products carry a two-to-four week lag to LME copper, because extrusion and drawing schedules are set against billet that was cast on the prior month's melt. That single mechanism explains the whole of this week's C68700 snapshot: copper fell $0.05/lb, and every C68700 product line on the table above still moved up $0.05 to $0.12/lb. The copper decline you can see on the screen today will not appear in a C68700 mill quote until the middle of November. The zinc rally, by contrast, is already in - zinc is purchased against shorter-cycle contracts and lands in the current billet cost much faster.

Underneath the lag sits a second, larger force. The Q4 outage calendar is the reason condenser tube is the tightest line in the family: utility and process-plant retube work clusters into the autumn and early-winter shutdown window, and that work is specified almost entirely in ASTM B111 seamless tube and ASTM B395 U-bend tube. Bundles are quoted as complete heat-exchanger sets, not by the metre, which means a single tender absorbs several weeks of drawing capacity at once. Seamless condenser tube lead time moved from 5–8 weeks to 7–10 weeks inside four weeks, and U-bend - which needs a second annealing and bending operation on top of drawing - picked up the largest premium of any C68700 line at +$0.12/lb.

For a buyer holding a C68700 quote from late September, the arithmetic is unforgiving. A condenser retube package worth $120,000 USD on the late-September basis prices closer to $131,000 today - roughly +$11,000 on one order, before any tolerance, U-bend radius or hydrostatic-test adders. That is the cost of waiting for a copper dip that brass mills have not yet passed through. The practical read: treat this week's copper decline as a November repricing event, not as a reason to delay a Q4 retube order.

Three signals in the data are worth separating before the November contracting cycle closes.

Zinc is now the volatile leg, not copper. Across five weeks, LME copper moved in a $6.39–$6.61/lb band - a 3.4% range. LME zinc moved $1.30 → $1.44/lb, a 10.8% range, and 73% of that move came in the last two weeks. If you have been tracking copper to forecast C68700, you have been watching the wrong screen. Zinc contributes $0.29/lb of the current $5.40/lb melt - a 3.76% zinc move is worth $0.011/lb of melt on its own.

C68700 is the lowest-zinc brass in the condenser line, and that is now an advantage. At 20.2% zinc, C68700 sits well below Admiralty C44300 (28–31% Zn) and naval brass C46400 (39% Zn). Every $0.05/lb of zinc adds about $0.010/lb to C68700 melt but roughly $0.014/lb to C44300 and $0.020/lb to C46400. Three weeks of zinc firming has shifted the relative cost position by $0.03–0.06/lb in C68700's favour - for buyers whose specification permits it, this is the week the substitution maths actually improved.

The arsenic requirement is a fixed cost most buyers forget to budget. C68700 is only dezincification-resistant because of the As 0.02–0.06% dose, and it has held at $0.04–0.07/lb for three weeks while the base metals moved. It is small, it does not move with LME, and it is the line item that gets dropped when a mill quote looks "too competitive" - if As is not on the certificate, the tube is not C68700 in service terms.

Cost lines as a brass mill or finishing house actually bills them, expressed as USD per lb of finished C68700 product, with USD per kg in parentheses. Prices include the fabrication premium applicable to the week ending October 23, 2026. Condenser and U-bend tube carry the highest fabrication premium (78–140% above melt); plate, sheet and bar at 33–78%.

USD/lb prices reflect October 23 spot assessments with prevailing LME Cu $6.56/lb, LME Zn $1.44/lb and LME Al $1.32/lb. Fabrication premium varies by form, temper and lead time; ranges shown are typical for the most-traded product / temper combinations.

C68700 (arsenical aluminum brass) is the default condenser-tube alloy for freshwater, brackish and moderate-salinity cooling water. Six nearby grades trade at premium or discount against it. Quick reference for buyers deciding whether to upgrade, substitute or hold specification.

Premiums reflect October 23 spot assessments. C68700 baseline at $9.60–12.20/lb seamless condenser tube equivalent. Discounts and premiums vary by form and temper; ranges shown are typical for tube / plate equivalents.

Six product-line moves the data is pointing to, in priority order.

C68700 U-bend condenser tube (ASTM B395). The tightest line in the family at +$0.12/lb on the week. Book the mill slot this week and get written delivery confirmation with the U-bend radius tolerance stated. The autumn shutdown window is absorbing drawing and bending capacity now; the next fabrication-premium round lands once the November contracting cycle closes.

C68700 seamless condenser tube (ASTM B111). Lead time has moved to 7–10 weeks. Lock Q4 retube volume inside the next ten trading days. Order as a complete bundle set rather than by length - mills are scheduling heat-exchanger bundles as single units, and partial-length orders are being queued behind them.

C68700 welded heat-exchanger tube (ASTM B543). At 5–8 weeks this is the shortest-tube alternative and carries roughly $1.00–1.20/lb less than seamless. For non-critical exchangers, ask for a welded-tube requote this week - it is the fastest way to take lead-time risk off a Q4 schedule, and the zinc rally has not hit this line as hard.

C68700 tube sheet / plate (ASTM B171, > 25 mm). Bundle orders are pulling tube-sheet plate with them. Re-quote thick plate now and specify stress-relieved condition plus As verification on the certificate; tube sheets are the one place where a chemistry miss is expensive to discover after drilling.

C68700 strip / coil (0.15–3 mm). Fin-stock demand applied +$0.06/lb. Lock Q1 2027 fin-stock requirements now; the fabrication premium on thin-gauge brass strip widens fastest of any form when the order book fills, and thin gauge is where capacity is rationed first.

C68700 bar / rod (ASTM B124). The slowest line at +$0.05/lb with stable lead times. Lowest-priority action this week - re-quote only if you have a Q1 2027 deadline, and consider C46400 naval brass if the specification permits, since the zinc rally has widened the C46400 discount.

Two signals to watch over the next two weeks.

If LME zinc pushes above $3,300/tonne ($1.50/lb), the zinc leg alone adds $0.012/lb to C68700 melt and the printed mill quotes stop easing even after the copper lag works through. C68700 becomes more expensive relative to C11000 and C12200 but more attractive relative to C44300 and C46400 - the substitution recommendation in this article strengthens in both directions at once.

If LME copper recovers above $14,800/tonne, the copper dip becomes a one-week event rather than a turn. The November repricing never arrives, and the current printed quotes become the Q4 floor. Under that scenario, budget 5–7% above current levels for late-Q4 and early-Q1 condenser tube, and treat any quote with a validity shorter than 14 days as expired on receipt.

Mill-direct product lines carried in our Q4 catalogue for arsenical aluminum brass (UNS C68700), with related brass and copper-nickel grades supplied against on request. Mill test certificates per EN 10204 3.1 are standard; dezincification testing per ISO 6509 and ammonia-vapour screening per ASTM B858 available on request. Full mechanical-property and corrosion-test reports on request.

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