The CEO of Chile National Copper Corporation believes that copper prices are expected to remain high next year

According to comprehensive media on November 30th, Diego Hernandez, CEO of Codelco, a Chilean copper company, announced on Wednesday that copper prices are expected to remain high in 2012 as market supply remains tight.

Codelco is the world's largest copper producer. Diego Hernandez said, In the coming year, the supply and demand of copper in the market will be quite tight, which means that copper prices will be at a very ideal level. We have completed our sales plans for the Asian and European markets, and the company's copper sales volume is normal. Sales volume has not decreased. "And Rodrigo Toro, the vice president of sales for the company, said on Tuesday that only Asian customers are requesting an increase in copper supply, but the company no longer has more copper available for sale.

Rodrigo Toro stated last week that its copper production this year may exceed 1.7 million tons. Codelco expects Chinese copper demand to remain strong as it continues to expand infrastructure construction. Diego Hernandez said, "Even if Chinese demand slows down to only 8% growth, demand will still be very strong." Currently, China's copper consumption accounts for 38% of the global annual copper supply. But he added that the company has not yet resorted to legal means to resolve the issue of acquiring equity with Anglo American.

The company stated on Monday that it is estimated that it will not reach a consensus with Anglo American Group on the acquisition of equity before January next year, which has sparked industry concerns that the two companies may resort to legal action to resolve their differences. Earlier this month, Anglo American Group suddenly announced the sale of AAS24.5% equity to Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan for $5.4 billion, which may prevent Code lco from exercising all options and reduce the available share ratio to 24.5%, half of the original. On Wednesday, LME three month copper surged above $7800 per ton as major central banks around the world announced a coordinated supply of liquidity to the market, while the US released better than expected employment data.