Copper futures approached the $3.7 per pound mark, rebounding from the six-month low of $3.5 touched on May 24th as mounting supply concerns and expectations of government stimulus outweighed evidence of low purchasing activity. Major market players continued to flag concerns that copper supply cannot keep up with expectations of long-term demand, as the metal is a key raw material for the transition to renewable resources. Copper inventories at the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell to under 135 thousand tonnes in May, the lowest this year, and those at the London Metal Exchange were under 60 thousand tonnes, the lowest since 2005. Also, Chile said this year's output is estimated to sink as much as 7% after the 10.6% decline in 2022. In the meantime, concerning manufacturing activity and industrial growth figures in China ramped up bets of incoming stimulus measures from the Chinese government.
Historically, Copper reached an all time high of 5.02 in March of 2022. Copper - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on June of 2023.
Copper is expected to trade at 3.58 USd/LB by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate it to trade at 3.35 in 12 months time.