Goldman Sachs believes that copper imports are increasing before the tariffs such as FCX positions to benefit (updated) – Freeport -MMCMORAN (NYSE: FCX)

Editor’s note: The title has been updated for clarity.

Goldman Sachs It is expected to increase copper imports in the United States soon, driven by the tariffs of the President Donald Trump administration.

For every Reuters a reportThe investment bank expects a 25 % duty on copper imports by the end of the year, stimulating storage to progress in legislation. As a result, US clear copper imports can increase by 50-100 %, adding between 200,000 to 300,000 metric tons for local stocks by Q3.

If this drop is achieved, American copper stocks can be enlarged from 95,000 tons to up to 400,000 tons or about half of the reported global stocks – leaving the international market with levels of historically low stocks.

For 2025, Goldman sees a global deficit of 180,000 tons, as the demand for electrification, economic stimulation standards in China, and slow mining growth. The bank believes that the imbalance is more clear in the second half of the year as a incentive for high prices.

The bank pointed out that “we maintain our expectations that the price of LME for a period of three months will be an average of 10200 dollars per ton in the third quarter of 2024 and see the effect of inventory dislocation mostly in the period of time.” The current three -month copper contracts on the London Metal Stock Exchange were traded at $ 9,528.50 per ton from Wednesday morning.

The largest American copper producer, Freeport-McMORAN FCXIt can benefit from this scenario, especially if copper is classified as a critical metal.

In a conversation interviewCEO Kathleen Quirk She expressed her optimism that the Trump administration can take this step soon, and to cancel the determination of federal tax incentives to support local production.

“The presence of incentives and clarity about those will be a great addition to the local copper industry.” This Freeport will enable the claim of more than $ 500 million annually in the tax credits associated with the Law of Inflation.

Freeport-MCMORAN runs seven copper mines throughout the United States and one of the local copper fuse. The company does not export any locally produced copper, which makes it a major resource in any scenario that restricts imports.

However, the costs of production in the United States are higher than it was in the international operations of Frewport due to low crude degrees, which makes policy support an important factor.

per The latest guidanceThe company expects 8 % increase in US copper production in 2025, with increased growth in subsequent years. Opportunities include the capacity capacity of the capacitor Baghdad The process in Arizona, which can add 200-250 million pounds of copper annually.

Quirk also alluded to a possible return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Fribort had previously owned Kisanfu Copper-Cobalt project before selling it China Moldinum In 2020. “We will be interested in returning to the right opportunity,” adding that Frewport will seek to be the operator of any project if it re -introduced the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Price watch: Freeport-McMORAN decreased by 5.28 % of the year. The stock rises by 1.56 % to $ 36.44 before marketing at the last check on Wednesday.

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