Peru's Foreign Trade and Tourism Ministry (Mincetur) foresees an improvement in the value of
mineral exports starting March this year, in light of expectations of an upcoming recovery in the copper price.
"We expect a more optimistic scenario regarding the management of coronavirus by March this year, which may improve the copper price and, therefore, the value of mineral exports," Mincetur head Edgar Vasquez stated.
The minister said that the copper price started to fall in the second half of 2018 and such decline deepened in 2019, thus causing Peruvian exports —mainly the traditional ones— to decline.
This was combined with the emergence of coronavirus that, particularly this year, has caused the price of copper to tank.
The government official affirmed that he expects Peruvian shipments abroad will show a recovery this year.
The copper price on Comex was US$330 per pound on 8 June 2018 and stood at US$268.15 per pound on December 28 this year.
While the price of copper was US$282.95 per pound on 27 December 2019 and stood at US$260.70 per pound on February 14 this year.
It must be noted that the
U.S.-China trade war started in 2018 and in mid-January this year both countries put a pause on tensions by sealing a first-stage trade pact. Whereas the coronavirus outbreak in China began in December 2019.
Vasquez's remarks we made after participating in the awards ceremony for the winning initiatives of the Internationalization Support Program (PAI) 2019 – IV.
(END) MMG/JJN/RMB
Published: 2/18/2020