Iron ore weakness to continue into 2025 and beyond, says Fitch Solutions’ BMI
Looking beyond 2024-2025, BMI analysts maintained their view that iron ore prices will likely follow a multi-year downtrend.
The copper price extended its decline on Friday despite the prospect of a strike in the world’s biggest producer Chile and signs of improvement in top buyer China’s economy.
Copper for delivery in July fell 2.5% from Thursday’s settlement, touching $4 per pound ($8,800 per tonne) Friday morning on the Comex market in New York.
Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices
The union said that workers at Chilean State-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, will go on strike if they do not receive a favourable answer from the company’s board of directors.
The union has insisted that Ventanas, in the central zone of the country where the smelter is located, needs $53 million worth of capsules to retain certain gases, allowing operations to continue while being environmentally compliant.
Meanwhile, data showed that Shanghai’s economy contracted for a second month in May at a somewhat slower pace, weighing on the commercial hub’s recovery prospects following a two-month covid lockdown.
Related: Chile tax reform, mining royalty ‘priority number one,’ Minister says
“Industrial metals are really not sure what direction to take on China. One day there’s a headline saying everything’s opening up. The next day there’s a partial close-down again,” said Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics in London.
(With files from Reuters)
