Leading copper producers worldwide 2023, by production output

Freeport-McMoRan was the world's leading copper mining company based on output in 2023, producing some 2.06 million metric tons of the metal. The U.S.-based company was followed by the Australian company BHP, with a copper output of nearly 1.4 million metric tons.A fluctuating global copper market impacted by low supplyThroughout 2020, mine closures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a reduction of the copper production volume and demand. By April 2020, monthly copper prices had slumped to some 5,058 nominal U.S. dollars per metric ton of copper, before soaring to a record high over a year later in May 2021. This price hike was linked to depleted copper inventories in April 2021, which led the Bank of America to issue a warning regarding copper supply levels. Calls by the Chinese government over the need to restrain commodity prices paired with a strike at BHP’s Santiago integrated operations center contributed to a slight dip in copper prices thereafter. However, a new record-high copper price was recorded in May 2022, at 10,231 U.S. dollars per metric ton. Copper market worldwideAt six percent, BHP shared the same copper production share as Freeport in 2022, only trailing Codelco, which held seven percent at that time. The Chilean copper mining company Codelco recorded revenues of over 17 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Europe represented Codelco’s leading regional market in terms of revenues. Europe was the second largest refined copper consumer behind China and the rest of Asia, which amounted for over half of the global demand in 2022. That same year, China ranked fourth for copper mine production worldwide. It was dwarfed by Chile, which produced an estimated 5.2 million metric tons of the commodity.

Freeport-McMoRan于2023年成为全球领先的铜矿开采企业，产量达到约206万吨。这家总部位于美国的公司之后是澳大利亚的BHP公司，其铜产量接近140万吨。受供应短缺影响，全球铜市场波动不定。2020年全年，由于COVID-19大流行导致的矿山关闭，铜的生产量和需求量均有所下降。到2020年4月，铜的月度价格已下跌至约5,058美元/吨，一年后在2021年5月创下历史新高。此次价格上涨与2021年4月铜库存的减少有关，导致美国银行美林公司就铜供应水平发布警告。中国政府关于抑制商品价格的需求，以及BHP圣地亚哥综合运营中心的罢工，在此之后对铜价产生了一定程度的下降。然而，2022年5月，铜价再次创下新高，达到每吨10,231美元。在全球铜市场上，BHP与Freeport在2022年共享相同的铜产量份额，均为6%，仅略低于当时持有7%份额的智利铜矿公司Codelco。Codelco在2022年的收入超过170亿美元。就收入而言，欧洲是Codelco的主要区域市场。欧洲是中国及亚洲其他地区之后的第二大精炼铜消费国，这两者在2022年占据了全球需求量的一半以上。同年，中国在全球铜矿产量排名第四，其产量被智利所超越，后者估计产量约为520万吨。