Copper: Humanity’s first and most important future metal
Millions of feet of copper wiring will be required for strengthening the world’s power grids, and hundreds of thousands of tonnes more are needed to build wind and solar farms.
Hopes of a sustained recovery in Chilean copper shipments are fading after the biggest-producing nation saw July exports come in at the lowest level since January.
Revenue from shipments last month slumped 13% from June levels, despite slightly higher prices for the metal. That suggests Chilean operations continue to endure project delays and mine-specific setbacks that have restrained production for the past year and a half.
Weaker supply out of Chile — a country that accounts for a quarter of global production — also helps explain why Chinese inventories are nearing critically low levels.
(By James Attwood)
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