Chile, the world’s largest copper producer, has increased its price guidance for the red metal to $3.30/lb, according to the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco).
In November 2020, Chile forecast a price of $2.90/lb for 2021, but increased this projection in anticipation of global copper demand increasing by 3pc to 23.9mn mt this year, the commission announced in a statement on Jan 28.
Chile’s copper production is also expected to increase by 3.6pc to 6mn mt this year, while copper output will reach 6.1mn mt in 2022, Cochilco indicated.
The South American country forecast that copper prices could reach $3.00/lb in 2022, as demand will rise at a slightly slower pace of 2.8pc to 24.6mn mt compared to 2021.
Copper prices reached $3.57/lb on Friday, January 29, up by 1.27pc compared to the prior day, according to data from Cochilco.