Credit Suisse metals analyst Michael Shillaker says a Chinese economic acceleration beginning in late 2010 and continuing through 2011 will drive copper prices up almost one-third higher, The Business Insider reports.
“We still think that copper will reach $10,000 a ton by 2012 and relatively simple supply-demand analysis supports this,” Shillaker told Metal Miner.
“We believe there is 30 percent upside potential to current share prices for the miners into year-end and in some cases potentially more than 100 percent upside over the next two to three years,” Shillaker is quoted as saying.
Not only will China increase demand through 2011 and into 2012, but demand “normalization” in the rest of the world will add fuel to the fire, says Shillaker.
Shillaker believes that copper will be the next catalyst for the out performance of mining shares, similar to those witnessed in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2009.
According to Meta Markets, September copper added 1 cent to $3.35 per pound in New York trade, while three-month contracts for the metal used in construction and manufacturing rose $8 to $7,390 per ton on the London Metal Exchange, as inventories continued to decline.
Copper inventories in LME-monitored warehouses dropped another 1,725 tons, but price gains were limited by concerns that demand in China will slow as the government there continues to try to limit lending by banks in order to slow growth in the Asian nation’s property market.
© 2025 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.