Glencore makes some worthwhile points on impending metal deficits – but they’re aggressive.
HALIFAX, NS (MINEWEB) – Glencore summarized its particularly bullish outlook on both copper and zinc – two important commodities it mines and trades – in a rather thorough presentation it gave at a recent investors day. All 193 pages here. At the very least, it makes for good reading if you want an overview of multiple metal and energy sectors in terms of supply and demand. Among its predictions two metals stand out: copper and zinc supply deficits.
Copper first.
Glencore gets very bullish and opposes the big research organizations about their views of a coming surplus. A major copper deficit is in the cards instead, Glencore says.
That should be readily apparent in an equation it puts out there on slide 72. It cuts down surplus forecasts for 2015 from a slew of global mining operations – ones relied upon by the likes of Wood Makcenzie, among others such as Brookhunt and the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) – to revise a 390kt surplus (by the ICSG and Brookhunt) – to a 1.4 million to 1.6 million tonne deficit.
Now Glencore’s a bit vague in its equation and numbers and it’s surely aspirational. It tallies 1.8 mt in certain/likely/maybe copper market revisions in terms of supply from mines around the world to deduct from that predicted 390kt surplus. It announces, “=Deficit of 1.4 – 1.6 Mt for 2015?”
Glencore arrives at the 2015 mega deficit calling into question a slew of of mine expansions, like phase II Oyu Tolgoi, potential double counting of some Zambian copper output, and operational incidents that affected production like theMt Polley tailings failure in Canada.
It’s a great slide – page 71 – and it’s worth a look.
Yet it must be taken with a grain of salt. For if Glencore characterizes the views of Wood Mackenzie and the ICSG of surplus as rosy – very possible – Glencore’s total tally of a 1.4 to 1.6 mt deficit assumes the worst (N.B. to which it adds a lot of “?” in its tally.) In other words.
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