Copper market’s biggest whale fuels speculation of a major shift
The world’s single biggest buyer of copper, State Grid Corp. of China, has slowed its purchases of copper wire this year.
Precious metals consultancy GFMS reports in its 3-Year Copper Forecast – August 2009 publication that although prices have slipped by around 5% since the recent high of $6,419/t, the underlying fundamentals are still there. On an average annual basis, it expects higher copper prices each year out to 2012. It also said that a strong recovery in consumption coupled with slower mine production (and by implication refined production) growth have caused it to predit an 88,000 t deficit for 2010. In addition to the direct impact of the improvement of the fundamentals on prices, the swing of the market to deficit (as well as the improvements in the wider commodities complex) is also expected to trigger additional investor interest in the metal, which will further boost prices. In 2010 it forecasts copper cash prices to top $7,500/t, averaging $6,500/t. (more…)
