Las mineras pesimistas con los precios de los metales.
Once Bullish, Miners Turn Bearish on Metals Prices
Sector wrestles with overcapacity that built up during the decade-long commodity boom
Tom Albanese, chief executive of Vedanta Resources, speaks at a conference in Cape Town in February. Mr. Albanese says that the rally in metals just went “beyond what the fundamentals would suggest.”
Tom Albanese, chief executive of Vedanta Resources, speaks at a conference in Cape Town in February. Mr. Albanese says that the rally in metals just went “beyond what the fundamentals would suggest.”PHOTO: WALDO SWIEGERS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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By Alex MacDonald
Updated May 26, 2016 6:17 a.m. ET
The rally in the price of metals is over and few see it coming back soon, including the miners themselves.
Copper, iron ore and other metals and resources rallied through much of this year, but this month headed lower once more. Those declines will continue, given uncertainty over Chinese growth, the oversupply in many metals and resources, and a strengthening U.S. dollar, mining executives say.
That will put further pressure on the share prices of miners, which rebounded with metals.
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Analysts are also bearish, but the negative call from once bullish miners underscores just how poor sentiment is in metals markets, even after five years of declines.
“Although we have recently seen some positive signals...we are expecting another year or two of low copper prices,” said Jean-Paul Luksic, chairman of Chilean copper producer Antofagasta PLC , last week.
Other senior executives from the world’s largest miners have a similar message on their metals and iron ore.
From lows hit as early as January to May, copper gained 17%, nickel rose 25%, and iron ore, a key ingredient in steelmaking, shot up 75% to $68.70 a metric ton.
These rallies were fueled by a belief that China would buttress wobbling economic growth with stimulus measures, creating demand for metals and iron ore while also encouraging Chinese retail investors to jump in. A fall in the dollar made these greenback-denominated resources cheaper for holders of other currencies and low interest rates around the western world sent investors looking for yield, including in commodity markets.
More recently, the Chinese government has played down expectations of further stimulus while quelling the retail speculation by increasing deposits and fees for trading. Meanwhile, the dollar has strengthened again, amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will pursue a faster pace of interest-rate increases.
“I would say the recent softness has more to do with increased expectations that the Fed will raise interest rates in June and its effect on the U.S. dollar,” said Tom Albanese, chief executive of India-focused mining giant Vedanta Resources PLC . Mr. Albanese also believes that the rally just went “beyond what the fundamentals would suggest.”
As this year’s rally faded, the sector faced the same problems it has wrestled with for years, in particular the overcapacity that built up during the decadelong commodity boom that began at the turn of the century. Analysts have repeatedly said that more mines and smelters need to close for prices to really bottom out, particularly in metals such as aluminum and nickel and in iron ore.
Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of the world’s largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal , said that China has yet to fulfill a promise to shut down more than a hundred million tons of excess steel-production capacity. Instead, the world’s No. 2 economy continues to export large quantities of steel.
“We keep on hearing some blast furnaces, smaller private blast furnaces (are) reopening” in China, Mr. Mittal said earlier this month.
Norilsk Nickel , the world’s largest nickel producer, estimates that about 70% of global production in this metal is currently loss-making. Only 17% of this capacity is close to shutting down, the Russian miner estimates.
“We do hope that...this year there will be serious discussions at management and boardroom [levels] as to how they should react to the market, because for us there should be some response from the industry,” said Sergey Dubovitskiy, Norilsk’s head of strategy.
Miners’ shares rallied with metals prices and they are following them back down. The FTSE 350 mining index, which includes some of the world’s largest miners, climbed 83% from its low this year to a peak in April, before falling 15% to date. Shares in commodities giant Glencore PLC more than doubled from their low in January to their March peak. They have since fallen 19%.
To be sure, executives like Mr. Albanese don’t see the price of metals like zinc and copper falling to their multiyear lows of this January. Also one metal, zinc, has the potential to gain this year after two large mines were shut in 2015, prompting demand to outstrip supply. “Zinc continues to have the best...fundamentals,” said Mr. Albanese.
Overall, miners remain pessimistic, even as commodity prices declined in recent years, miners didn’t shy away from predicting a return to the bull run in which some metals more than quadrupled in value. But more recently executives have been steering clear of such predictions, having called the bottom of the market many times only to see prices fall again.
“The world has not recovered yet, totally, from the financial crisis,” Sam Walsh, chief executive of Rio Tinto PLC , told reporters earlier this month. “In that environment, calling the bottom is a brave move.”
—Rhiannon Hoyle in Sydney contributed to this article.
Write to Alex MacDonald at
alex.macdonald@wsj.com