Freeport Copper Output Falls Short Just as the World Needs More of the Metal
- Annual copper sales expected to be 3.8 billion pounds in 2021
- Available stocks in LME warehouses hit the lowest since 1974
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Freeport-McMoRan Inc. produced less copper than expected last quarter from its mines in the Americas, adding to concerns over a drum-tight global market that’s seen prices surge back toward record levels. The stock fell.
The world’s largest publicly traded copper miner produced 987 million pounds of the metal in the third quarter, Freeport said Thursday in a statement, with the output falling short of the 1 billion pound average estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg. The production miss was led by lower-than-expected output in its mines in South America and North America. Freeport’s statement didn’t provide information indicating why output was below market expectations.