International. Copper, one of the important commodities in the HVAC/R industry, has been registering notable price increases. This Monday, May 10, its value had reached US $ 4.87 per pound, which meant having exceeded the historical maximum registered last Friday when it reported US $ 4.72.
At the moment there is a risk of copper shortages. According to Bank of America (BofA), prices could reach $20,000 per metric ton by 2025.
Bank of America commodities strategist Michael Widmer noted that inventories measured in tonnes are now at levels seen 15 years ago, implying that stocks currently cover just over three weeks of demand. This comes as the world economy begins to open up and reassert itself.
After deficits in 2021 and 2022, BofA expects the copper market to rebalance in 2023 and 2024 before further deficits and a further reduction in inventories occur from 2025.
Chile and Peru
According to iForex, both Andean economies have difficulties in hanging on to this performance in the price of copper, their main export product in a context where both Peru and Chile account for 60% and 50% of their exports in basic or industrial or precious minerals.
Chile drags an endemic vocation towards stoppages due to strikes and union demands from its main operations such as the deposits operated by Corporación Nacional del Cobre or CODELCO, the largest copper company on the planet.
With a portfolio according to the mining authorities of Peru in metal mining projects of US $ 56,158 million for the range of years 2021 to 2025.
Many of them copper – such as Tía María, Toromocho, Cerro Corona, Mina Justa, Michiquillay, San Gabriel, Corani, Yanacocha Sulfuros and Quellaveco [which is in operation] – are still waiting to be launched by the paralysis of the economy in the face of COVID 19, which in 2020 meant a hundred days of "operational blackout".
Given this scenario and with a price per pound that is close to five dollars, the Andean economies are racing against time.
