The copper market is largely shrugging off the positive price effects of supply constraints and is focusing its attention on the negative consequences on growth of the trade wars, the chief executive officer of Freeport-McMoRan has said.
As long as this remains the case, copper prices appear unlikely to strengthen significantly, although a return to a more stable and positive relationship between China and the United States would eventually shift sentiment in favor of the metal once more, Richard Adkerson told Fastmarkets in an interview during London's annual LME Week."There's going to be skepticism until the market gets a clear view of things," Adkerson said."Now, if a more reasonable relationship between China, the US and the rest of the world emerges, then we'll likely see an underlying strength in the economy that could really come into play and notch up copper demand," he said."The copper supply-side issues are going to be exposed more and more because they're there - they're not being solved. It's a sentiment issue, and the hope...