GRAPH: Copper price has far to fall as Chinese growth tumbles
Copper prices near records can't stay aloft as growth in China slumps to just 2.5% in 2022, argues new report.
Frik Els , Editor
Frik has 20 years’ experience as a business journalist across a range of industries including automotive, technology and entertainment markets. Frik has an entry in Global Mining Observer’s Who’s Who of Mining 2018, and contributions to publications and conferences including Business Insider, Investing.com, Mines & Money London and New York, Vancouver Resources Investment, Progressive Mine Forum in Toronto and Canadian Mining Symposium in London, UK. He’s been interviewed on CBC Radio and Korea State TV and quoted in the Financial Post.
Posts by Frik Els:
Goldman sees copper price “breakout”, risk of “extreme scarcity episode”
New report says 2021 deficit, “open-ended decline” of mining supply and record low stocks going lower still, raises risk of an “extreme scarcity episode.”
Copper price: Global stocks are down to three days’ consumption
October 2021’s copper squeeze sent the bellwether metal into record territory – now warehouses again only have enough metal to last a long weekend.
This chart says industrial metals prices have far to fall
Unless there’s been a major decoupling of copper, zinc, nickel, aluminum prices and Chinese manufacturing activity, declines of as much as 40% may be in the offing.
Add another 1m tonnes to annual copper demand from EVs
2021 saw a surge in new electrodeposited copper foil manufacturing capacity – just one use leading to a 5-fold increase in copper demand from EVs over the next decade.
CHARTS: Tesla v Volkswagen v BYD – battery power, lithium, nickel, cobalt use
Most ambitious European automaker and Warren Buffet-backed Chinese EV and battery manufacturer unlapped themselves in 2021, at best.
RANKED: Top 20 EVs of 2021 – costs jump as lithium, cobalt, nickel prices surge
Ranking of world’s 20 best selling electric cars and their battery metals show automakers grappling with soaring raw material prices.
US rare earth stock cracks top 50 mining companies for the first time
Non-Chinese rare earth producers have been conspicuously absent from mining’s top tier, now worth a collective $1.5 trillion, up $200 billion year to date.