At the 2024 (19th) SMM Copper Industry Conference and Copper Industry Expo - Copper Raw Materials and Consumption Development Forum, jointly organized by SMM and Shandong Humon Smelting Co., Ltd., SMM Copper Senior Analyst Wu Yifan shared the copper market against the background of shortage of copper raw material supply.

At the 2024 (19th) SMM Copper Industry Conference and Copper Industry Expo jointly organized by SMM and Shandong Humon Smelting Co., Ltd., SMM Big Data Director Ye Jianhua gave an outlook and forecast on the copper market price in 2024.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), global copper reserves were 1 billion tons in 2023. Countries rich in copper resources mainly include Chile (190 million tons), Australia (100 million tons), Peru (120 million tons), and Russia (80 million tons), Mexico (53 million tons) and the United States (50 million tons), etc. In terms of output, global copper output from ore in 2023 was 22 million tons. The main copper-producing countries were Chile (5 million tons), Peru (2.6 million tons), China (1.7 million tons), and the United States (1.1 million tons).

The SMM Copper Concentrate Index in September rose by $0.18/mt on the month to $93.40/mt. The SMM Imported Copper Concentrate Index (weekly) for the week ending September 28 stood at $93.23/mt.

SMM expects that the copper concentrate output of Cobre Panama mine in the first quarter of 2023 may still be at a high level of 80,000-90,000 mt with metal content.