SHANGHAI, Jun 27 (SMM) – Máximo Pacheco, president of Chile's state-owned copper company Codelco, said that despite the recent sharp drop in copper prices, copper prices are expected to strengthen in the future. Codelco is the world's largest copper producer.
Copper recorded its biggest weekly drop in a year as investors worried that central banks' efforts to curb inflation would dampen global growth and reduce demand for the metal.
"We may be in a temporary short-term turmoil, but what matters is the fundamentals, and the supply-demand balance looks very favourable for those of us with copper reserves," Pacheco said.
Copper futures on the London Metal Exchange (LME) edged lower on Friday, tumbling about 6.5% for the week, their biggest weekly loss in a year. Other industrial metals also fell sharply. Benchmark three-month copper on the LME hit $8,122.5/mt, down 25% from its March peak and its lowest level since February 2021.
Pacheco said the annual production target would remain at 1.7 million mt during his tenure, including this year. Costs need to be controlled, he said.
"In this industry, we want to compete on cost, and that's why we need to be competitive."
The Chilean government said this week that Codelco was allowed to retain 30 percent of profits from last year to fund an ambitious $40 billion investment plan until the end of the decade.
