As investors weigh swirling macro-economic factors, market fundamentals for copper — a key metal in global construction and transportation — remain solid, according to an industry veteran.
Prices for the bellwether commodity this year will average more than $4 a pound, Diego Hernandez, head of Chilean mining society Sonami, said in an interview Tuesday. That would be a record annual average.
The supply-demand equation for copper is “very tight,” even amid market-wide uncertainties fueled by Chinese property turmoil and a global energy crunch, said Hernandez, who’s a former chief executive of Codelco and Antofagasta Plc. Prices for the metal have pulled back since touching an all-time high in May, but probably won’t fall much further this year, he said.
The metal used in wiring also has an auspicious longer-term outlook in a global transition toward cleaner energy and transport. Still, some new mines entering the market — such as Anglo American Plc’s Quellaveco in Peru and Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.’s Kamoa-Kakula in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — will add to supply.
For the rest of this article: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/very-tight-copper-belies-market-turmoil-industry-leader-says-1.1659075