Copper prices could trade lower next year amid an uncertain outlook for the world’s major economies, but the move is more likely to be a grind than a collapse as supplies remain tight, according to the consensus among metals traders and mining executives.
The discussion at London Metal Exchange week, the largest gathering of the metals industry, has been dominated by a trio of uncertainties in the world’s three most important economies: the handover of power in China, the US election and looming “fiscal cliff”, and the eurozone debt crisis.
“Everyone is sitting on the sidelines waiting for the US election and the appointment of the new Chinese leadership,” Andrew Michelmore, chief executive of MMG, the international mining arm of Minmetals of China, told the Financial Times in a video interview.