Friday, April 21, 2023

Copper: "Freeport-McMoRan's profit more than halves on lower production" (FCX)

From Reuters, April 21:
Copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc's (FCX.N) first-quarter profit more than halved on Friday, hurt by a drop in production and lower prices amid signs of an economic slowdown.

In February, the company was forced to stop operations at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia for more than two weeks after the mine was hit by floods.

Freeport also warned in January that its struggle to find workers in the United States was limiting the amount of copper it can produce....

....MUCH MORE

The stock is down $1.92 (-4.63%) at $39.44
It was a beat but there is so much uncertainty around demand going forward that the market didn't seem to care. As noted in November 2022's
Copper: What's Your Timeframe?

Four from Mining.com:

Tomorrow through month-end? Dollar Index down again is almost mechanistically supportive for commodities priced in bucko's.

Next month? "World’s biggest copper mine moves closer to strike"

Next year? "BHP sees 2-3 years of elevated costs, near-term copper oversupply"

Next decade? "Codelco sees copper deficit at 8 million tonnes by 2032"

For now and into Q2 2023 the West and maybe China have a recession they have to get through.

And enough with this nonsense: "Copper price rises on China’s property support".

As we've said a few times, government support of the overindebted property developers is not nearly the same thing as supporting the construction of new housing.

Related, April 20: "Copper: No Dramatic Impact From China's Re-Opening"