The products of copper

Copper cable is one of ZMS main and advantage products. We just completed 15kV&11KV armored XLPE copper cable, 1kV control and concentric copper cable this month.

Since copper takes big part in total copper cable net cost, the copper cable are easily effected by copper influctuation. So, our customer and us all pay close attention to copper trend. What will be the copper trend in year of 2018? Today we share the view from BHT Biliton on copper market. 

In this article, we will specify ten reasons on BHT Biliton’s Optimistic View on Copper Market,based on the supply and demand, combining our own framework for assessing prospects for commodities

The supply factor

 The grade of copper ore is gradually declining, and the global large-scale high-quality resources are depleted.

The grade of copper ore is gradually declining, and the global large-scale high-quality resources are depleted.The main reason is that the grade of the porphyry copper mine continued to decline as the market expected in the long run.

Porphyry copper deposits account for the largest portion of the world's total copper metal reserves and are currently the most important source of global copper supply.

Lack of successful exploration discovery

At present, the world's major copper production is still derived from those giant mineral deposits that were explored and exploited decades ago.Their operating costs are also relatively low.However, data show that the exploration volume of these mineral deposits have reached their peak. 

Project investment risk

The amount of metallogenic exploration in OECD countries peaked in the 1980. These countries are faced with project investment, that is the "non-technical" challenges encountered in mine exploration and marketing of minerals are relatively low.

 Water shortage

Data from CSIRO show that the amount of copper used to produce a conventional ICE car consumes about 1,600 liters of water. Important copper sources in the Atacama region of Latin America, the southwestern United States, Central Asia and South Africa  who are facing serious water shortages.

Desalination plants can guarantee water safety for individual projects, but they require large investments and require large amounts of energy to keep the equipment running.Without saltwater desalination, copper miners will face many challenges in competing for water with other commercial users or the public in areas with scarce water resources.

In copper mining, or more generally in the mineral industry, ethical and efficient water management will be a competitive advantage for some operators. For those who can not do this, it will be a problem  to continue having operation permits. 　　

Reasonable market fluctuations

Copper mining industry has shown a more reasonable dynamic mechanism in the face of market pressure.

During the cyclical downtrend, the 90% quantile line (supply-demand balance) on the cash cost curve has become a valid support point for copper prices.Not all commodities are the same, and in some markets that have become sticky supplies, the price of minerals falls below the cash cost line of 90 per cent and lasts for several years.However, copper prices rebounded on the 90% sub-line during the recent copper price downturn.

This shows that even in the era of zero interest rates, the copper market can still keep price fluctuations within a reasonable range when some other commodities have a significant sticky supply.