Chart of the week: red metal is red hot
Growth in China and the rise of the electric car sees copper prices rebound after several poor years.
After several poor years, copper futures have bounced sharply. They rose by a fifth this summer to a three-year high close to $7,000 a tonne. Growth in China, which takes almost half the world's copper, looks solid, while India's appetite for the red metal is growing by around 8% a year.
But the latest surge stems from the rapid spread of electric cars, which BHP Billiton notes use four times as much copper as conventional ones. Meanwhile, a dearth of significant discoveries in recent years points to tighter supply. The market will be in deficit in 2017 for the first time in years, says Citi Research.
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