Within the framework of the Asia Copper Week 2019 -event organized by Cesco and the Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association of China- held in Shanghai, the eighth version of the CEO Summit was held, meeting that brings together more than 50 CEOs and senior mining managers, both from the West and the Asian country, to discuss the future of the copper market.

The conversation was moderated by the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cesco and the current President of Celta Consultores, Patrick Cussen, and featured presentations by four experts who visualize the future of the demand for the red metal.

“We have presentations on copper consumption that glimpse a good future for the industry”, says Cussen. “On one hand, we were able to know the growth projections of the different energy sources in China, which is an important growth area.”

This presentation was made by the expert Hou Yong, who is the director of the Industrial Development Energy Supply and Demand Analysis Division of the Resources Department of the China Electricity Council. Hou Yong delved into the potential of this area, whose projections predict a high consumption of copper in different related technologies.

Subsequently, the director of New Energies for Automotive Technologies of the China Automotive Technology Research Center explained to the attendees that they are currently producing 30 million vehicles, exceeding in this area to the United States. Of them, one million vehicles are electric. “This amount will go up in the future, because the future of electric vehicles is very clear, and copper consumption is essential for its operation,” Cussen explained.

In addition to this, the meeting was attended by Vivienne Lloyd, Metals Strategist of Macquaire Capital (Europe), who as an analyst, gave her point of view on the market, which is stable in terms of its fundamental variables, but it has been exposed to macroeconomic factors.

Finally, the economist and professor at the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, Huang Yiping, focused his presentation on the external factors that are influencing the copper market, specifically, the trade war between China and the United States.

“The world agrees that there is significant growth in long-term of copper consumption”, said Cussen. “Copper is guaranteed a future splendor, in the long term. However, in the short term, specifically speaking of 2020, there is no significant improvement in the price of copper. It will probably maintain similar levels to those of this year. However, as for the commercial war, the opinions are quite diverse, some optimistic, others not so much, and we will have to be watching very closely how this develops to understand what will happen in the copper market”, he concluded.