Goldman continues to expect copper prices to rise
The investment bank expects copper to hit 5$ per pound by the end of the year.

In a new research note, Goldman Sachs said the copper price is "ready for the next surge" as short-term headwinds ease and fundamentals pointed to a significant increase in demand in the future. The copper concentrate market remains very tight, according to Goldman, creating a bottleneck in primary metal production in China and underpinning the forecast of a significant deficit of 430,000 tons of refined copper in the second half of the year. Goldman expects a deficit of 200,000 tons for the next year and halved its surplus forecast for the year 2023 to 129,000 tons, "after which the indefinite deficits will begin". Treatment and refining charges (TC / RCs) paid by miners to smelters to turn concentrate into refined metal rise when supply is plentiful and decrease when smelters are forced to compete for scarce material . While TC / RCs rose from a historically low level of just over $ 20 per tonne in April to around $ 45 per tonne in July, today's fees are still below the $ 70 per tonne in June last year and peak from $ 130 in the 2010s. Goldman also raised its longer-term outlook for copper, anticipating a significant increase in electric vehicle sales over the next decade. The EU recently proposed even stricter emission standards - 55% reduction by 2030 and a gas-powered vehicle sales ban by 2035.





