Copper level 'will return to glut next year'
By Margaret Doyle
Daily Telegraph, October 22
THE worldwide copper surplus, which dipped this year, is set to rise again next year, the head of the International Wrought Copper Council, the copper users group, warned yesterday.
The forecast, from Simon Payton, the council's secretary general, is further bad news for producers who have seen the price of copper collapse by more than $1,000 a tonne from $2,700 a tonne early last year. Mr Payton expects the surplus to dip from 460,000 tonnes last year to 300,000 tonnes this year, but to rise again to half a million tonnes next year.
Consumption is expected to be flat this year at 13.2m tonnes, and to increase slightly to 13.5m next year. Production is expected to fall from 13.6m tonnes last year to just below 13.5m tonnes this year. However, production is expected to jump to almost 14m tonnes next year as big Latin American copper mines come on stream, despite an expected production fall in China and the former Soviet Union.
Mr Payton said the former Soviet Union "is trying to maintain exports, but there is a risk of less output due to the economic troubles there".
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