A near-term issue for copper is the ability of the Trump Administration to get its ambitious infrastructure efforts off the ground, something many market observers believe will not happen until next year.
Additionally, if that effort does not approach the $1 trillion in expenditures promised by the president on the campaign trail, markets could be disappointed.
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Barring labor strikes in Chile, copper market observers expect the market to be fairly balanced next year with a modest rise in production. Last year, there was a 44-day strike at a Chilean copper mine, the longest in the country’s history. Since 2009, the country has seen three copper strikes lasting longer than a month.
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