Copper, like other commodities, has been a topic of economic discussion in recent days. Fears of inflation and the Chinese government’s announcement that it will monitor markets more closely to protect consumers from rising commodity prices have dampened expectations of an anticipated price supercycle. Cochilco, for its part, revised its average copper price forecast for 2021 upward to US$4.3 per pound. Concerns about the future of copper will continue in the coming weeks, fueled by the heightened political risk posed by Chile and Peru, which account for nearly half of mine-produced copper. The results of this weekend’s elections in Chile and the second round of Peru’s presidential election on June 6—where leftist candidate Pedro Castillo holds a slight lead in the polls—are causing uncertainty in the market. In both cases, the outlook is overshadowed by the specter of aggressive increases in mining taxes (in Chile, a bill is already under discussion in the market). Lundin Mining, for example, announced that it will put a US$500 million investment plan for its Chilean operations on hold. Meanwhile, let’s take a look at this table to see how the International Copper Study Group projects copper production and consumption.