Copper prices are at record levels. Ware-house inventories are at record lows. A copper supply deficit is set to widen as electrification demand will eclipse China as the main demand driver in the coming years. Times have never been better for the copper sector, and yet the feeling at the 2022 CRU World Copper conference in Santiago, Chile, in March was subdued. Things were very different the last time conditions for the red metal were so bullish during the commodities su per cycle in the last decade. Compared with the euphoric CRU World Copper Conferences in 2007 and 2008 as cop per approached US$4 per pound, this year's event had a feeling akin to the market being in recession - despite copper being at $4.70/lb.
NSTL
