A Million Tons of Copper Is on the Way: It May Not Be Enough
- Analysts at industry event this week are in bullish spirits
- CRU Group sees copper deficit at 270,000 metric tons by 2023
Photographer: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg
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Giant mines currently under construction will churn out an additional 1 million tons of copper through 2023, but that won’t be enough to fully close an expected gap between supply and demand in the next few years.
Industry analysts and executives descending on Santiago this week for the Cesco conference, one of the industry’s biggest events, are in bullish spirits: a key indicator of the market for semi-processed copper ore -- known as concentrates -- is pointing to the tightest market in more than five years, and banks and brokers such as Morgan Stanley and Macquarie Group Ltd. rank the metal as one of their top picks.