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1) The London Metal Exchange (LME) will enter the new year with the smallest warehouse stockpiles in at least 25 years, setting up for future squeezes and spikes if demand turns out stronger than expected. Available inventories of the 6 main metals that are traded on the exchange, fell by two thirds in 2022, highlighted by zinc's plunge of 90%. The low stockpiles at the end of the year reflect a year that was marked with tensions felt with constrained supplies, worries about weakening demand due to recession and a war that influenced the price of many commodities. Heading into the new year, the key metric to watch is whether the world will go into a recession that will increase the stockpiles in the LME warehouses, and in turn lower the prices of the commodities. Analysist are split on what the future holds, whether an oversupply of metals will bring the prices down with an economic downturn, or whether the critical minerals needed for the energy transition will still keep prices higher than normal.
2) Iran plans to invest $15 billion to boost copper production in the next 5 years according to the Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Reza Fatemi-Amin. Iran is currently producing 280,000 tons of copper cathode a year, which the country wants to increase to over 1 million tons. "In order to achieve this goal, the program to increase production by 750,000 tons started this summer, which requires $15 billion of investment, he said, adding the projects will gradually come on stream by the Iranian year 1406." Iran has more than 6% of the world's copper reserves, ranking the country as 5th in the world in copper reserves, and new explorations have started in eastern Iran alongside other providences. The state-owned mining company NICICO, operates 3 major copper mines which have a combined reserves of 3.4 billion tons. The country overall has 68 types of minerals, ranking the country among 15 other mineral-rich counties, being worth about $800 billion.