CHARTS: The coming critical minerals trade war is BRICS short of a load
"While a large number of countries around the world continue to talk about securing raw material supply, China is actually doing something about it."
Chile’s copper export revenue fell 8% to about $3.6 billion in April 2012, compared to the same period last year, when it was lifted by high prices of the commodity, the country’s Central Bank informed today.
According to the financial institution, the red metal’s export revenues last month also dropped 1.1% from March in the largest copper producer in the world.
London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month copper fell 0.5% in April, which means copper stocks have fallen roughly 135,000 tonnes this year to 235,200 tonnes, the lowest levels since the 2008 recession.
The LME handles around 80% of global trade in metals futures and manages 600 metal warehouses around the world.
Like all industrial metals copper’s fortunes are largely determined by Chinese consumption. The recent slide in the copper price – down 3% last week to $3.72 a pound – is being driven by news that China is getting rid of its excess inventory to alleviate shortfalls elsewhere in the world, as MINING.com reported yesterday.
