Rising copper premiums should forerun years of higher prices for the metal, Atlantic Copper chief executive officer Javier Targhetta said in an interview with Fastmarkets on Tuesday October 9 during LME Week in London.
Premiums for copper cathodes in-warehouse Shanghai remain close to three-year highs, while import gains for Chinese refined copper in September are up by 16.1% this year. The London Metal Exchange copper futures contract is down 14% since the start of the year, at $6,231 per tonne at the opening bell on Friday. "It's very significant," Targhetta said. "The premium doesn't know about speculation or short or long positions, the premium means availability of material and it's climbing." Atlantic Copper, owned by US copper giant Freeport-McMoRan since 1993, is set to achieve record production of 288,000-290,000 tonnes of copper cathode this year. The company's European...