Political, social stability ensures chile's copper future

摘要

Way back in January, copper industry analysts thought 2.50-per-lb US dollars. Copper was "unthinkable," but with over a dollar added to that, until recently it seemed that the copper price knew no bounds. Chile's copper miners are smiling so hard that it hurts, but is copper getting into dangerous territory? And what are the medium-term implications of 2-plus US dollars copper? Copper producers are churning out every pound of copper they can and Chile forecasts production at 5.45 million tonnes for 2006, slightly higher than the 5.32 million tonnes in 2005. But to maintain this rate, companies are delaying routine maintenance, causing problems to accumulate that will have to be dealt with later. This, combined with labour issues, leads Celfin Capital analyst Cesar Perez to conclude that "no one will meet their production targets this year," adding to price pressure.