(Adds detail, modernisation of Bulgarian plant from paragraph five)
HAMBURG, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Copper ore refining charges are likely to rise sharply in 2015 following initial contract settlements reported in China, the CEO of Europe's largest copper refiner Aurubis said on Friday.
U.S. miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc has agreed to pay Chinese smelters term treatment and refining charges (TC/RC) of $107 per tonne and 10.7 cents per pound for copper concentrate shipments in 2015, up from $92 per tonne and 9.2 cents per pound for term shipments in 2014, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
"I think the settlements in the new year will be around this overall level," said Aurubis CEO Bernd Drouven.
Copper TC/RCs are paid by miners to smelters to refine concentrate into metal and are a key part of the global copper industry's earnings.
Drouven stressed it was not known what the concentrate volumes and quality may be involved in the reported China deals.
But global supplies of copper concentrate from mines were expected to be good in 2015, he told a press conference.
When large ore supplies are available, mines have to compete to gain smelter capacity.
The rise in TC/RCs would provide a "positive impulse" for the company's performance in its new 2014/2015 fiscal year which started in October, he said.
Aurubis earlier on Friday posted a sharp rise in operating earnings for the 2013/14 year, which beat analysts' expectations.
Aurubis will also undertake a major maintenance and modernisation shutdown of its Pirdop copper smelter in Bulgaria in 2016 lasting about 50 days, Drouven said. Work will raise the plant's current capacity of 1.35 million tonnes of concentrate processing annually but the increase is not yet being announced, he said.
The Pirdop work will cost about 44 million euros, he said. The work will be undertaken in April and May 2016 and the production stop will have a negative impact of about 25 million euros in that fiscal year's pre-tax earnings, he added.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan; Editing by David Clarke and Mark Potter)