Mark Loveitt, chairman of the International Copper Filling Council (IWCC), said last week that the copper downturn caused by COVID-19 was health-related, not economic, as was the case with the global financial crisis of 2008/9, foreign media reported.
Despite the financial impact of COVID-19's cloud on the global economy and many industries, the copper industry is expected to return to pre-epidemic levels this year, Lovett said at a copper-focused conference hosted by consultancy Rosskill on May 26.
During that time, he explained, green issues had "soared" to the top of the agenda as macroeconomic drivers had strengthened.
In addition, the unexpectedly quick rebound in London Metal Exchange copper prices to pre-COVID-19 levels, as well as the commodity's high exposure to China's economic rebound and its link to the global electric vehicle revolution, have helped boost expectations of a copper market boom this year.
As metals related to electric vehicles, such as copper, are more likely to experience a more sustained price cycle this year, the IWCC forecasts that global refined copper demand is expected to grow by 5 per cent this year and 3.4 per cent in 2022 to more than 25.3m tonnes.
In addition, the decreasing availability of post-consumption resources (commonly referred to as "scrap"), which has also been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, lower prices and quota restrictions, has further ensured cathode copper sales remain strong, limiting the impact on refining producers, Mr Lovett said.
At the start of the pandemic, copper demand fell sharply in almost all end-use areas, although demand for copper was boosted by the production of laptops, tablets and smartphones, whose use increased during the pandemic.
Despite some negative volatility in the past few months, the IWCC expects overall economic growth to set a record this year, although it warns that supply-side constraints, or the novel coronavirus variant, could reduce the scope of the recovery, especially given that China's economic growth has slowed.
Mr Lovett warned that metals demand was likely to perform relatively weakly in 2021 after stronger-than-expected gross domestic product growth in 2020, but he said "it will still grow strongly" given the scale of potential economic growth.
He added that COVID-19 and the policy response that followed had triggered an acceleration in the pace of change in the global economy, with different impacts on demand for different key raw materials expected over the next decade.
In addition, short-term supply bottlenecks are growing and the sector is increasingly competitive in terms of resources, environment, society and governance, even though prices of most key raw materials have risen enough to encourage new supply.
Mr. Lovett commented that metals in general, and steel in particular, are seen as more exposed to the Chinese market and therefore more advanced in the economic cycle, while superalloys, on the other hand, are more sensitive to the economic cycle due to their high cost and lagging end-use market.
