Chilean national copper company (Codelco), the world's largest copper producer, said on Wednesday that it expected copper prices to fall to between $3.80 and $3.90 a pound within a year, down from just under $4.30 a pound.
"Price forecasting has always been very difficult, especially in the short to medium term, but prices next year are likely to be slightly lower than this year," Octavio Araneda, chief executive of Chile's Codelco, told reporters at the inauguration of the video operations center.
This forecast is more pessimistic than that of the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco). Cochilco said this week that it expected copper prices to fall to $3.95 a pound next year.
Copper prices have risen sharply this year, and some analysts believe copper prices will usher in a new supercycle as demand for copper used in electric vehicles increases.
Chile and Peru are the first and second largest copper producers in the world, respectively. Politicians in both countries are trying to raise taxes on miners in order to make more profits from the expected high prices.
But Araneda said his expectations were less optimistic and he expected copper supply to exceed demand by 2024.
Only then, he says, will higher demand for electric cars match copper production.
Araneda added that Codelco2021's annual copper production would be similar to that of 2020.
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