Morning Bites (part 3)

🇨🇩 The DRC has banned exports of copper and cobalt concentrates, but suggests the restrictions are to be lifted for one year in “special cases”, Reuters reports, citing the official order. Although the measure's duration remains unclear, local authorities imposed similar restrictions in 2013–19 to bolster domestic processing

Currently most of the DRC’s copper ores are already processed locally through SXEW technology into refined copper (not affected by the ban). However, on our numbers, 0.5-0.6mnt of the country’s total 3.6mnt Cu output in 2025 were still exported in concentrate. Hence, the suspension of concentrate exports could further widen the global Cu market deficit, which we forecast to account for ~2% of demand in 2027 in our base case scenario

We maintain our bullish view on copper, amid both short‑ and long‑term supply issues, growing global demand for renewables and surging investments in China’s grid infrastructure (~8% of global Cu demand, on our numbers)

#copper