Will copper prices reach 100000 yuan/ton in the future?

     On April 16, at the CLNB2025 (10th) New Energy Industry Expo hosted by Shanghai Nonferrous Network, Tang Juxing, academician of the CAE Member and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, said that in 2030, the copper price will approach or exceed 100000 yuan/ton. As of April 17th, the average spot price of electrolytic copper in Shanghai was 76095 yuan/ton.

     According to Tang Juxing, the main reason for the rise in copper prices is that the development of the new energy industry requires a large amount of copper as raw material. At the same time, global copper ore reserves have entered a bottleneck period of discovery, and the trend of declining copper ore grades has led to increased development costs and difficulties, ultimately constraining supply.

     As of now, China's domestic copper production is still relatively low, and the vast majority of copper needs to be imported from abroad, mainly from countries such as Chile and Peru. According to Tang Juxing, the domestic copper mine production in 2024 will be 2.1 million tons, with a secondary production of 3.3 million tons and an import volume of over 14.5 million tons.