Copper price: Chile, Codelco face another lost decade of output growth

By Frik Els 

2022.09.04

After an early jobs-report bump on Friday in New York, the copper market turned negative by lunchtime, marking its sixth straight session of losses. December contracts for the orange metal are now trading down 8% for the week. 

The carnage was evident among copper stocks, with the top producers suffering double digit losses over the last week of trading: Freeport-McMoRan gave up 12%, Southern Copper declined 11%, First Quantum Minerals fell by 18%, Antofagasta lost 11%, Teck Resources –10%, Glencore –12% while KGHM has lost 18% on the Warsaw exchange.  

Disappointing manufacturing data in China was behind the recent pullback after PMIs from the country, responsible for 55% of global copper consumption, unexpectedly slipped into contractionary territory. 

But worries about global growth, inflation and interest rates, and an energy crisis in Europe have been hounding the metal for months. The copper price has now fallen by on