Chinese slowdown drags down global copper price

The global price of copper, Peru’s main export metal, is experiencing strong pressure these days that is keeping it at a five-week low, due to weak growth figures from China, a power that is increasingly decimated by indebtedness from his real estate.

The price of the red metal remained at the close of its first weekly session at US$3.738 per pound on the London Metal Exchange (BML), reaching an average so far this year of US$3,923, a decrease of approximately 7.3%.

The raw material had reached be quoted at US$4.01 per pound on July 31. Doubts about the Chinese recovery, which is leveraging the construction and energy markets, have undermined expectations.

For July, indicators of weakening credit in China They have been fueled by the suspension of the listing of 11 onshore bonds by Country Garden, the main private real estate developer of the Asian giant.

All spotlights are on upcoming activity data in China with industrial production for July and retail sales for the same month, which will be announced this week. In both cases, analysts estimate a certain acceleration in the growth rate compared to the previous month.

On the other hand, in our country the production of copper recorded its fourth consecutive monthly growth in June and 241,801 TMF were reported, an increase of 21.8% compared to the same month of the previous year (198,467 TMF).

Precisely, the production of Quellaveco rose in the second quarter of 2023 and accumulated until June a record extraction of 127,781 TMF.

According to some analysts consulted by this medium, this renewed growth factor in copper production in Peru would have prompted the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to update its growth forecast for copper upwards. GDP in July, which had previously been below 1%.

Global copper price falls, but Peruvian production advances