Copper Market Remains Tight
Dr. Copper continues to attract plenty of debate regarding the future. The bulls point to the fast declining inventories at the LME long followed as the leading inventory indicator. The bears will point to the fast increasing supplies at the Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses suggesting that China demand is slowing. It's very possible that both opinions are correct and the truth is somewhere in the middle. Codelco, the leading copper producer in the world, shared some interesting thoughts on the copper market as it revealed the plans for spending a record $4.3B this year on increasing output. So why is the largest copper producer spending to increase production if the worlds largest copper user is slowing down? Naturally because the company sees a tight market partially due to strong demand and also due to weak supply. Codelco expects copper production from its mines to actually decline this year. Highlighting the ultimate problem with any bears of copper. If demand just s...