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Global economic recovery and demand from emerging industries have driven copper prices to rise stronglyslotsgardennodepositbonuscodes2022, the imbalance between supply and demand in the copper market has intensified, and the long-term upward trend has not changed.
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Copper prices were boosted by global economic recovery and demand from emerging industries, showing a strong upward trend. On May 20, the July contract price of COMEX copper in New York once rose by nearly 3%, continuing to remain at an all-time high. The cumulative increase this year has reached 38%. At the same time, copper futures prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) also hit a new high, showing the booming trend of the global copper market. The imbalance between supply and demand is the main reason for the rise in copper prices. On the one hand, the global manufacturing and new energy industries have a growing demand for copper, especially the rapid development of emerging industries such as electric vehicles (EV), renewable energy and artificial intelligence (AI), which has greatly promoted the demand for copper. Jeff Curry, former head of commodity research at Goldman Sachs, pointed out that copper prices are expected to continue to rise sharply against the background of unbalanced supply and demand for copper mines. He commented that this is the best trading opportunity in 30 years. On the other hand, copper production faces multiple challenges and supply tensions have intensified. In 2024, the global copper industry encountered many disturbances, such as the suspension of the operating license of the Sossego copper mine by a Brazilian court, power shortages in Zambia, and the forced closure of the COMMUSSAS copper-cobalt mine in Congo due to excessive radiation levels. These factors have led to tighter supply of copper mines, further pushing up copper prices. Increased speculative sentiment in the market further contributed to the rise in copper prices. As copper prices continue to rise, short funds are facing tremendous pressure, and a large-scale short-selling phenomenon has occurred in the U.S. copper market, disrupting the global copper market. Although some analysts have warned that the decline in short-term speculative sentiment may bring the risk of a correction in copper prices, the long-term upward trend of copper prices is not expected to change. The report released by China International Capital Corporation stated that as long as demand expectations in global manufacturing and new energy industries remain optimistic, the upward trend in copper prices will continue. In addition, the premium phenomenon between COMEX copper prices and LME copper prices has attracted market attention. Max Layton, director of commodity research at Citibank, pointed out in the report that as arbitrageurs transport physical copper to the United States, stimulating the transfer of copper supply may lead to a relative tightening of copper supply in the LME market, thus pushing LME copper prices to rise further. This change may gradually reduce COMEX copper's premium to LME, but the final trend will still be determined by the actual market reaction. To sum up, the continued rise in copper prices is ultimately due to the imbalance between supply and demand and the significant growth in demand from emerging industries. Although market speculation may cause copper prices to fluctuate in the short term, copper prices will continue to maintain an upward trend in the long run. Against the background of global economic recovery and rapid development of new energy industries, copper, as a key industrial metal, has broad demand prospects. At the same time, the disturbance factors of copper production and the change in the premium between COMEX copper price and LME copper price are also important factors affecting the trend of copper prices and deserve close attention from the market.