Copper is relaunching on the international market after a year of scarcity
Based on indications from the London Stock Exchange, copper is trading at USD 9,188.85 per tonne as of Friday, January 20, 2023.
Although the valid reasons are not mentioned for this increase of almost 600 USD, experts in the sector inform that the giant of the trade Trafigura plans to withdraw a significant volume of copper from the stores of the LME. The metal should stay on the continent, say the same sources.
LME copper inventories, at 83,325 tonnes, are already historically low. 31.2% of this volume, or 26,000 tonnes, is reserved for deliveries – this compared to 12% on January 3. Of this volume, 20,600 tonnes would be stored in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
At the local level, experts from the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, working within the National Commission of Mercurial, project an increase in the price of copper on the international market for the period from January 16 to 21, 2023.
According to these experts, the ton of copper should trade at 8,651.00 USD per ton this week on the international market against 8,353.00 USD per ton last week. There is a positive difference of around USD 297.9, or 5.57% of the copper price during the period mentioned.
This upward trend in copper should do business for the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is one of the largest producers of these metals on the African continent.
It should also be noted that the National Commission for Market Prices also projects an upward trend in several other mining products exported to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is the case of zinc, the market price of which rose from 3,009.10 to 3,110.40 USD per tonne, an increase of 3.3%.
