Metals Veteran Ives Sees $12,000 Copper Within Sight This Year

Kenny Ives, chief executive officer of IXM, the metals trader owned by China’s CMOC Group, discusses the outlook for copper prices and IXM’s performance in 2025. He spoke to Bloomberg’s Jack Farchy at Bloomberg’s ‘Base Metals: Reshoring, Rebalancing, Repriced?’ event on Oct. 14 2025. Source: Bloomberg

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By William Clowes and Mark Burton

October 14, 2025 at 1:56 PM UTC

One of the metals industry’s best-known traders is adding his voice to a chorus of bullish copper forecasts, predicting that prices could hit records near $12,000 before the end of the year.

Kenny Ives, chief commercial officer at Chinese copper and cobalt producer CMOC Group and CEO of its trading arm IXM, sees benchmark copper prices on the London Metal Exchange likely ending the year close to $11,000 or even $12,000 a ton, he said during the LME Week summit in London on Tuesday. He told Bloomberg News that he’s “nice and bullish” on the metal.