If you look at the copper market chart over the past 10 years, it might seem like a perfectly balanced system. Market “bears” love to point to these figures. Global consumption has grown to about 28 million tons per year, but the industry has coped. Production has increased, and supply has met demand. No copper apocalypse has happened yet.
At first glance, everything is under control — but this is a very dangerous illusion. Those who assess copper's prospects relying only on the charts of the past decade are making a fundamental mistake. They see that the system has remained in balance, but they fail to understand how this balance has been maintained.
