Global copper producers gather this week in Chile as supply cuts push prices higher, despite the industry facing deteriorating ore quality, project delays, and concerns about long-term demand from the Sino-American trade war. p>
Despite these challenges, the industry expects significant growth over the next decade, driven by the anticipated boom in demand for electric vehicles that use twice as much copper as combustion engines.
“According to statistics, we are facing a copper deficit and the market is expected to be tougher in 2019 than last year,” said Eleni Joannides, Copper Market Analyst at Wood Mackenzie Consulting Company.
According to a Reuters poll of 30 analysts, the average copper price on the LME this year will be $ 6397 per tonne, slightly lower than $ 6437 on Friday.
The copper industry is evolving and striving to bring new suppliers to the market, but this will take time. In the meantime, international copper stocks in the form of combined shares owned by the London Metal Exchange, Comex and the Shanghai Futures Exchange have almost halved from last year to about 500,000 tons, according to the exchanges.
Most of the time at the weekly conference is dedicated to research presentations by industry scientists exploring new uses for red metal to compete with aluminum in the marketplace.
