"plastic" said someone to Dustin Hoffmann, and others are saying to us, "copper"VIDEO bloomberg.com China Has Copper Flying Like a FANG Stock Clara Ferreira Marques Read more opinion Follow @ClaraDFMarques on Twitter climbed roughly 60% from a late-March nadir. The industrial metal is trading at levels unseen since 2018 despite a surge in coronavirus infections in Europe and beyond, stockpiles rising off recent lows, and expectations of a surplus in 2021. The reason is China, which is dominating the 24-million-ton per year market like never before thanks to a recovery that is outpacing other economies.FANG -powered U.S. stock market. Copper’s rally has exceeded expectations, given that the most pessimistic forecasts for pandemic-related supply disruptions haven’t been borne out. Peru’s production fell in August from a month earlier, hit by worker shortages, but output in Chile, the world’s top exporter, increased. BHP Group-operated Escondida, the Chilean copper mine that’s the world’s largest, avoided a strike last week, even if workers at Lundin Mining Corp.’s far smaller Candelaria downed tools in the country.forecast-beating 6.9% in September from a year earlier; excavator demand has jumped , along with car sales . Fiscal stimulus , an imminent five-year plan that will boost clean energy investments, and an expansionary monetary policy are all supporting the recovery. Meanwhile, an appreciating yuan has increased consumers’ purchasing power.expects to see expand in 2020. In industrial metals, though, this year has marked a significant increase in its clout. The country now accounts for more than 50% of demand in nickel, steel, copper and aluminum, analysts at BMO Capital Markets say — a level that only Japan has ever come near, and China’s North Asian neighbor peaked at less than 15% of global volumes.already imported more copper than it did in 2019, to keep on spending its way through post-pandemic convalescence.five-year plan is set to include ample sums for electrification, clean energy and electric cars, which use four times as much of the metal as a standard vehicle. They are already forecast to make up the bulk of copper growth over the next decade or so, along with charging infrastructure. Then there are the aggressive decarbonization ambitions . All of that, and hopes of a spending spike in the fourth quarter from the likes of State Grid Corp. of China, explains the persistent net long positions among money managers in CME copper, up again, according to the latest Commitments of Traders Report. There are fewer bears out there, too, compared to much of early 2020 and 2019.shrunk again this week. It’s a far cry from a vision that once included the world’s largest open pit.cferreirama@bloomberg.net mbrooker1@bloomberg.net LEARN MORE 
