Trafigura Sees Green Copper Supercycle Driving Prices to $15,000
- Global green revolution to produce deep supply deficit
- Covid-19 boosts ex-China demand, head of copper trading says
The world’s biggest copper trader expects the metal to hit $15,000 a ton in the coming decade as demand from global decarbonization produces a deep market deficit.
Even in the early stages of the Covid-19 crisis, Trafigura Group was betting on the rebound that’s seen copper double over the past year to trade at more than $9,000 a ton. Now the commodities giant sees the metal soaring past record highs above $10,000 as western economies pull out of the pandemic and the green revolution takes hold, head of copper trading Kostas Bintas said in an interview.
So far, the rally has been fueled by virus-related supply disruptions and an unprecedented buying spree in China, consumer of half of the world’s copper. But as global investment in renewable energy and electric-vehicle infrastructure surges over the next few years, Trafigura sees prices of the bellwether raw material marching even higher.
“We thought copper would come out of this Covid crisis stronger, and that’s exactly what’s happened,” Bintas said. “What Covid has done is it has made the rest of the world a major factor in consumption growth, compared to the past, when copper was all about China.”
