The International Copper Study Group (ICSG) has forecast that refined copper usage in 2020-21 will increase year on year by 1.5%, owing in part to sustained economic growth in the United States.
The prediction comes despite a backdrop of weak global demand for copper, while increased smelting capacity in China will create a global market surplus of refined copper for the next two years, according to the ICSG's latest forecast document.In a presentation at Fastmarkets' International Copper Conference in Amsterdam last week, ICSG's manager of statistical analysis, Shairaz Ahmed, told delegates that while its outlook was for refined copper usage to increase, the group's forecast had been downgraded."A notable feature of the sluggish [economic] growth in 2019 was the sharp and geographically broad-based slowdown in manufacturing and global trade. While we can say that both may have found a floor, they are still showing economic contraction," Ahmed said."In line with this, the downward revisions to economic growth, and downtrends in individual countries' semi-fabricators industries,...