Copper futures bounced back to above $4.3 per tonne, having hit an 8-month low of $4.06 on May 12th on expectations that China would ease its COVID-19 restrictions. However, the price of the red metal is still almost 15% below a record peak of $5 hit in early March brought down by demand concerns from top consumer China. The latest data showed China's copper imports fell 4% from a year earlier in April, as lockdowns hurt manufacturing activity and consumption. Pressuring prices further was the continued appreciation of the US dollar, making the metal more expensive for holders of other currencies, and lingering concerns about global economic growth on a backdrop of high inflation, coupled with an aggressive tightening monetary policy.
Historically, Copper reached an all time high of 5.02 in March of 2022. Copper - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on May of 2022.
Copper is expected to trade at 4.19 USd/LB by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate it to trade at 3.94 in 12 months time.