Southern Copper expects the consumption of copper to rise in 2021 led by higher demand from China and world economies resuming a growth path during the year.
The company’s copper production rose by 1.4pc in 2020 to around 1.03mn mt from 1.01mn mt in the previous year. In Q4 2020, the miner’s output of the red metal trended flat at 265,915mt compared with the same quarter of 2019.
The Mexican miner attributed the rise in copper production to higher output from its Cuajone mine in Peru that reported a 7.8pc growth in mined output countering the 1.1pc and 1.4pc declines at the Toquepala and Buenavista mines, respectively.
Copper sales rose by 6.1pc to 1.05mn mt in 2020 from 986,024mt in 2019, and totaled 256,285mt in Q4 2020, up 1.4pc from 252,674mt in the fourth quarter of the previous year.
However, the company’s zinc production fell 6.8pc to 68,930mt in 2020 from 73,922mt in the previous year and declined by 17.7pc to 16,763mt in Q4 2020 from 20,364mt during the fourth quarter of 2019.
In 2020, zinc sales increased by 1pc to 104,752mt from 103,668mt in the previous year, whereas they rose by 0.7pc to 26,991mt in the fourth quarter from 26,813mt in Q4 2019.
In 2020, Southern Copper’s consolidated sales, which includes the sale of copper, zinc, molybdenum, and silver, increased by 9.6pc to $7.98bn compared with $7.28bn in the previous year. Consolidated sales in the fourth quarter tallied at $2.35bn, up 26.7pc from $1.85bn in Q4 2019.
The company’s net income increased by 5.7pc to $1.5bn in 2020 from $1.48bn in 2019. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 9.7pc to $3.86bn from $3.52bn during the same period. The miner’s quarterly net income surged by 93.1pc to $590mn in the fourth quarter from $305mn in Q4 2019, while its adjusted EBITDA increased by 59.4pc to $1.25bn from $786mn during the same timeframe.