Copper is an essential material in the sector of renewable energy, electric wiring, and electric vehicles and due to these applications, the computation of copper is growing. The diverse applications and unique properties make copper a critical metal for the modern world.
Copper prices in 2023 show various ups-downs due to various geopolitical, production, and labor issues. India is currently in the transition phase of electrical mobilities. As the demand for EVS increases it will cause a high demand for copper because the average battery electric vehicle requires 83 kg of copper which can push copper price in India into upward trajectory.
Copper End Use by Industry
Copper is used in various sectors; the construction sector uses most of the copper followed by the Power grids sector and heavy engineering.
The construction & power grids sector used 28% of copper each followed by Consumer goods and equipment with 21%.
Top Copper producing Countries in World
Chile is the highest copper-producing country with 5160 KMT production in 2022. The Latin American country Peru ranks second in the list of copper production followed by China.
Chile and Peru are also the biggest exporters of copper and China, Japan, Korea, and India are some of the biggest importers of copper.
Copper Industry in India
In 2022 the country has produced 555,000 tonnes of copper. Hindalco Industries Limited is the biggest producer of copper in India followed by Hindustan Copper Limited.
To fulfill India’s consumption, the country is dependent on Imports from various countries. The uncertainty in the supply chain followed by increasing geopolitical tensions put pressure on copper price in India. India is currently in transition phase of electrical mobilities. As the demand of Evs are increasing it will cause high demand of copper.
India wants to achieve its target to generate 450 GW renewable energy which alone boost copper demand by 30% in near future, over 3,000 kg of copper is required for generating just One MW of power via the solar photovoltaic & onshore wind platforms.
Copper Price Trend 2023
Copper price trend in 2023 were relatively volatile, with an overall decrease of 6 %.
Jan- Mar 2023
The continuous protests in Peru the second highest producer of copper cause serious supply demand misbalance caused an 18% increase in copper prices in Q4 2022. However, in Q1 2023, the prices showed signs of normalization which resulted in a 1.55 % Decreased.
Apr- Jun 2023
In the Q2 of 2023 the Copper price in India & internationally saw a decline due to lower demand from the Chinese real estate sector due to housing crisis and poor economic growth Resulted in a dip of 5%.
Jul- Sep 2023
As the protest got slowed down in Pero resulted the increased in production and slow global recovery with less demand from China cause dip in price. China is one of the biggest consumers of the copper and weak demand cause Resulted in a 1.3% drop.
Oct- Dec 2023
Q4 witnessed a copper price upswing as both Chinese and LME inventories hit 13-month lows. Despite this surge, robust EV and renewable energy consumption ensured prices stayed above $8,000/MT. Resulted to hike of 6%.
