Copper Price Trend and Forecast

Regional Price Overview

Get the latest insights on price movement and trend analysis of Copper in different regions across the world (Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa).

For the Second Quarter of 2022

Asia

The cost of copper in the Chinese market weakened towards the end of the second quarter and averaged 70,045 RMB/MT. With the government lifting the covid restrictions, the factories started full-fledged production; however, due to the wait-and-see attitude of the downstream sectors, the price trends for the metal weakened.

Copper prices in the Indian market followed a similar trend. They went from 781.25 INR/kg in May to 700.40 INR/kg due to the fears of recession as the central banks worldwide are tightening their monetary policy to control inflation.

Europe

The US hiking the interest rate and the decreased production in China due to covid-19 restrictions fueled the global speculations about recession. Hence, the price of the metals are falling amid low demand from other sectors. In the London Metal Exchange, prices went from 10,247 USD/MT in April 2022 to around 8245 USD/MT in June 2022.

North America

Recently, a dip in metal prices has been seen in the US domestic arena due to the fears of a global recession. Also, the demand destruction triggered due to the recession speculations has further driven the prices down. For the said quarter, the prices averaged 4.32 USD/lb in the domestic arena.

For the First Quarter of 2022

Asia

In the first quarter, copper prices varied and increased. At of the conclusion of fourth week of March, the spot copper price was 73,810 RMB/MT, up 0.39% from the start of the week's price of 73,521.67 RMB/MT, and up 12.03% year on year. Copper prices were on a significant upward trend during the quarter.

The market was characterized by extreme volatility. The LME proposed a ban on Russian copper entering warehouses, which exacerbated short-term price volatility. Retail sales of passenger automobiles in the narrow sense fell 10.4% year on year to 1.58 million units in March. On the 23rd march, prices decreased slightly to 73,455 RMB/MT.

Europe

The three-month copper contract on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.1% at 9,981 USD/MT, while the most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was up 0.8% at 71,460 USD/MT (11,276.81 USD). In the near term, a rate rise may put downward pressure on metals, but if global economic growth remains strong, metals demand may not allow prices to remain low for long.

North America

Copper prices (wire) in the United States have varied between 3,800 USD/MT in 2020 and 9,600 USD/MT in March 2022. Primary metals' prices, like those of other commodities like as oil and gas, have risen considerably since the Covid epidemic. However, the global recovery since then has resulted in high demand for metals in industries such as building, telecommunications infrastructure, and manufacturing.

For the Fourth Quarter of 2021

Asia

In the final quarter of 2021, the manufacturing activities witnessed a drop. The production levels dipped as China observed power crunches in the wake of the ongoing energy crisis in the region. This affected the production of copper in the region which led to rapidly decreasing inventory levels of the commodity as demand surged high.

The disruptions in supply due to low inventory levels amidst high demand drove up the copper prices to close to 10,000 USD/MT rising by 36% since the beginning of the year. China imported approximately 4.06 lakh tonnes of the metal after a supply shortage of five months.

Europe 

In October 2021, copper prices in London hit 9135 USD/MT which increased further by the end of the year as supply shortages were reported from Peru.

North America

Copper prices kept fluctuating above 9000 USD/MT till the year end after hitting record high values in May 2021. High freight costs amidst delays in supply had caused prices to rise while there was hope for recovery in supply among investors.

Latin America

In Latin America, logistic problems were faced while exporting copper to other countries which added on to the woes of supply deficit. A copper production plant in Peru responsible for 2% of the global output had been shut down due to community issues which affected supply logistics. Labour strikes in Chile over wages had also halted operations in several mines in the region which also contributed to the supply shortage situations.

For First, Second and Third Quarter of 2021

Asia

The majority of the demand was driven by China, which is responsible for 50% of the global consumption. The demand increased rapidly ahead of the winters which increased the prices globally. Copper prices hit as high as 10,000 USD/MT in 2021.

Europe 

Copper inventories in April had fallen by 10% to 155,100 MT as reported by the registered warehouses of London Metal Exchange. The demand increased as economies expanded and relied on sustainable development and thereby shifting to Electric Vehicles (EVs). As more car companies made EV commitments, the demand surged in the region. In Europe, prices hit 4.54 USD/lb amidst a recovering economy.

North America

Copper prices surged high as the economies recovered following the pandemic and as the vaccine emerged. They hit 10,700 USD/MT for the first time in ten years in the second quarter of 2021 followed by a fall to 9000 USD/MT in quarter 3.

Latin America

In Chile, the production had been hampered by the protests by mine workers against the President which raised concerns amidst low supplies, driving up the copper prices. The resurgence of Covid-19 also added on to the production and supply issues in Latin America.

For the Year 2020

Asia

Copper prices rebounded by the end of the year 2020, increasing by almost 18% since October and by 65% since March. The high demand in China, which is the largest consumer of copper in the world, drove up the prices. As the onshore market of China recovered rapidly, the end-user industry witnessed exceptionally high demands in the second half of the year.

The price by the year end had increased to 7600 USD/MT after recovering from the low prices of about 4500 USD/MT in the first half of the year due to the pandemic. The US dollar had been weak against the Chinese currency which drove up the inflation for metal. The production in Australia had been affected by the lockdowns.

Europe

The metal’s demand in Europe had fallen by 10% in 2020 in spite of the region being a major consumer of the commodity.

North America

Copper prices in North America hit the 6800 USD/MT mark in September 2020 rising by more than its price in March 2020 during which the prices fell due to the lockdown affecting the consumption levels in the region. The production had fallen during the first half of the year which reduced the global output by 1%. Production was hampered in Mexico, Canada and US.

Latin America

In Peru, the production had been hit by the lockdown imposed due to the pandemic as well as due to the poor weather conditions which disrupted the mining activities in the region bringing down the output by 20% in the first half of 2020. Chile emerged as one of the largest copper producers, witnessing record high production levels in the first half of the year with a 2.6% increase in production.

Procurement Resource provides latest prices of Copper. Each price database is tied to a user-friendly graphing tool dating back to 2014, which provides a range of functionalities: configuration of price series over user defined time period; comparison of product movements across countries; customisation of price currencies and unit; extraction of price data as excel files to be used offline.