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Copper is surging amid a broad rally in metals from iron ore to nickel. The bellwether industrial metal has doubled in price since a nadir in March, also boosted by rapidly tightening physical markets and prospects for rebounding economic growth.
“The mega-trends that we see playing out around global population growth, the electrification thematic and the energy transition, all of these bodes well for commodity demand over the medium-to-long term,” Mike Henry, BHP CEO, said last week in a Bloomberg Television interview.
“Folks who have really ignored commodities for quite a long time are now starting to get positioned,” said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities.
“The implication is that this could go on for a bit. It’s very much a function of expectations of scarcity.”
Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, views the recent spike in the price of the red metal as a “good opportunity” to generate cash for investments and hold down debt, but warned it could also drive up the miner’s costs, a senior executive told Reuters on Monday.
(With files from Bloomberg)
