A rising price for copper supplies, material imports and strategic stockpiling in China, and stimulus based on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) were identifed by industry analysts as the factors that would most strongly influence the copper market in 2021, during Fastmarkets' Copper Analysts Panel webinar on Thursday December 3.
Here are the main takeaways:
Imports, stockpiling in China
From January until October 2020,
China imported 5.6 million tonnes of unwrought copper and copper products. This volume was up by 41.4% from the corresponding period last year, according to customs data released by the country in November.
This was to be expected, given that China is the biggest consumer of the red metal in the world but lacks good copper mines, as was pointed out by Weihong Gao, non-ferrous researcher at JinRui Futures.
Panelists' attention was also drawn to the fact that some of these imports were purchases by the State Reserve Bureau in China, which stockpiles copper to prevent industrial supply chains from breaking down in the case of unforeseen events, such as a global pandemic.
There was consensus among the panelists that it would be quite surprising if the import and stockpiling activities were to continue...