Copper Prices Below Record Levels
Copper futures fell to around $6.5 per pound, extending their retreat from record highs of $6.8 per pound early in the month, as softening economic data from top consumer China weighed on the demand outlook. Industrial profits in China increased 15.7% in the first eight months from a year earlier, slowing from a 17.6% rise during January-July. Meanwhile, supply concerns are reemerging after workers at Antofagasta’s Centinela site in Chile rejected the company’s final wage offer, paving the way for a strike. Last week, Operations at BHP’s Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world’s largest, were suspended after an accident killed a worker but operations are being resumed progressively. Copper prices are on track for a nearly 6% rise for Q3 with physical markets showing signs of tightness, and vast amounts of refined material stockpiled in US warehouses on expectations that the Trump administration will introduce a tariff on imports.
8 per pound early in the month, as softening economic data from top consumer China weighed on the demand outlook. 6% rise during January-July. Meanwhile, supply concerns are reemerging after workers at Antofagasta’s Centinela site in Chile rejected the company’s final wage offer, paving the way for a strike. Last week, Operations at BHP’s Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world’s largest, were suspended after an accident killed a worker but operations are being resumed progressively.
Copper prices are on track for a nearly 6% rise for Q3 with physical markets showing signs of tightness, and vast amounts of refined material stockpiled in US warehouses on expectations that the Trump administration will introduce a tariff on imports.