Copper futures traded close to the $4.7-per-pound level, not far from an all-time high of $5 hit on March 7th amid a tight market as investors weigh lower supply from top producer Chile, disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine, and assess the impact of the latest Covid outbreak in China in both demand and supply. Copper output in Chile, the world's largest producer, fell 7% from a year earlier to 394,700 tonnes in February, following a 7.5% fall in January and a 1.9% decline in 2021 production. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities extended a lockdown in Shanghai, an industrial powerhouse and major port, further threatening global supply chains. Logistics operators report that restrictions are already making it harder to move goods around and keep factories operating at full capacity. Elsewhere, Peru's ministry of economy and finance said that the world’s second-largest copper supplier will target the excess profits that mining companies earned from rising metal prices around the world.
Historically, Copper reached an all time high of 5.02 in March of 2022. Copper - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on April of 2022.
Copper is expected to trade at 4.82 USd/LB by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate it to trade at 5.11 in 12 months time.