copper, tin, zinc and cobalt at a rate of poor performance this week
The main mining products exported from the Democratic Republic of Congo should suffer a poor performance this week on the international market.
According to experts from the National Mercurial Commission of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the general trend of these products for the period from May 16 to 21 is bearish.
If this National Mercurial Commission notes, however, that only cobalt should experience a price increase on this market, selling around 87,781.06 USD per tonne this week against 81,485.00 USD per tonne last week, the prices displayed on the stock market show a significant difference.
It appears that on the London market the price of a tonne of cobalt amounts to 74,670.09 USD against 81,485.00 USD per tonne last week. This product thus records a negative price difference of around -6,815 USD in this market segment.
The Mercuriales note indicates that the ton of tin should experience a significant decline during this period and should sell at 40,068.75 USD per ton against 43,050.00 USD last week, a negative price difference of $2,981.25 (-6.93%).
On the other hand, the ton of tin is sold on the stock market at 34,974.00 USD, thus recording a significant drop in price during this period.
As for copper, it is also down and will trade at 9,368.25 USD per tonne against 9,687.10 USD per tonne last week, a negative difference of 318.85 USD (-3.29%).
In real time, a ton of copper is sold at 9,255.30 USD on the London Stock Exchange.
Zinc hardly escapes this general underperformance. This product is down this week and is expected to trade at $3,755.03 per ton versus $4,130.45 per ton last week, a price drop of $375.15 (-9.08%).
The prices displayed for zinc by the London Metal Exchange, which is the London stock exchange specializing in futures contracts relating to non-ferrous metals, are around 3,564.25 USD per tonne.
At the same time, gold is trading lower at $60.75 per gram from $61.09 per gram last week, giving a negative price gap of -0.35 USD.
Silver tumbles this week to $0.73 per gram from $0.80 per gram last week, a negative price differential of -0.04 USD.
Tantalum is expected to observe a stable trend in this segment of the international market, trading at USD 390.00 per kilogram.
The fall in the prices of mining products could have a negative impact on the economy of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Indeed, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo recorded, in April 2022, an increased mobilization of public revenues, in particular thanks to the remarkable performance of the financial departments due in part to the surge in the prices of raw materials internationally. (copper and cobalt). This has had a positive impact on the turnover of mining companies, which has led to the payment by these miners of superprofits.
Although cyclical, superprofits are one of the parameters that justify the performance of the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI), with its record of 1.5 billion US dollars collected in the month of April 2022 alone.
As regards the explanations for this general underperformance of non-ferrous metals, analysts essentially cite two major reasons.
On the one hand, the geopolitical situation, in particular with the continuation of the Ukrainian conflict which raises fears of the risk of enlargement.
On the other hand, the management of the Covid by the Chinese State, with several strict confinements in progress and repercussions not only on the local populations, but also on the world economy with a drop in manufacturing production and its repercussions on the supply chains.
It should be noted that the prices of mining products may vary significantly upwards or downwards, depending on market trends.
