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Copper price rose on Thursday, December 8, 2022 in hopes that an easing of COVID-19 controls in China will increase demand as Goldman Sachs predicted prices could reach a record high of US$11,000 in a year.
Copper for delivery in March rose 1.3% on the Comex market in New York, touching US$3.91 per pound or $$8,602 per tonne, according to Mining.com quoting the Reuters News.
Copper is up three percent this month after rising 10.6 % in November as expectations began to build that China will retreat from its zero-COVID policies.
On Wednesday, the country dropped key parts of those rules.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said they now expect copper to be undersupplied in 2023 and “peak supply is now immovably fixed inmid-2024 … generating deficits from that point.”
They said China may seek to rebuild depleted inventories next year, adding to copper demand, and predicted prices would average US$9,750 a tonne in 2023 and US$12,000 in 2024.
“A wave of new copper mine supply is washing through the market, with smelters reaping the benefits in higher Treatment and Refining Charges(TCRCs),” wrote Reuters columnist Andy Home.
“Copper’s problem is the lack of visibility on where the next wave is coming from. Right now the horizon looks disconcertingly empty,” it stated.
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