Swedish Miner Says Donald Trump Doesn't Hold Key to Metal Prices
- Burgeoning middle class in emerging markets a bigger factor
- Boliden CEO sees strong future demand from Africa, S. America
Balls of copper anode sit in a pile at the Luvata Malaysia Bhd. plant in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia, on Monday, May 13, 2013. At a time when copper stockpiles are rising to the highest in a decade, manufacturers are paying the biggest premiums for the metal in as much as seven years as financing deals lock up supply and extend lines at warehouses.
Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/BloombergThe operator of some of Europe’s largest copper and zinc mines expects President Donald Trump’s plans to spend on U.S. infrastructure to have much less impact on base-metal prices than the needs of burgeoning middle-class populations in emerging markets.
That’s because projects in the U.S. and other developed countries simply won’t use enough zinc or copper to have any significant impact on prices, Lennart Evrell, chief executive officer of Sweden’s Boliden AB, said in a March 22 interview. When poorer and less-developed countries decide to build transport and power networks they consume far more of these materials, he said.