During his speech at the London Indaba, head of strategy group at Anglo American Paul Gait said that global demand for copper is expected to grow by 40% over the next 15 years.
As the expert emphasized in his speech, it is currently not quite correct to base demand forecasts for the red metal on green technologies only. According to him, in any electrical appliance, about 6% is made up of copper, which makes the metal critically important for many spheres.
Vedanta Base Metals CEO Chris Griffith also spoke at the event. He said that macroeconomic shifts in the areas of transportation, electrical, and construction will support the consumption of industrial metals.
He estimated that copper demand in these sectors will increase from 30 million tons to 46 million tons over the next 25 years. At the same time, he predicted that additional demand coming from green and innovative technologies will grow from 4 million to 10 million tons over the same period. He also pointed to the persistent difficulties in increasing global copper supply due to the declining number of mining projects and the high cost of their development.