BHP leading the way? Codelco could be overtaken as the world's top copper producer

According to Bloomberg Intelligence estimates, BHP could surpass Codelco for the top spot in global copper production.

The Australian company BHP is poised to potentially take the lead and surpass Codelco in global copper production in 2024, according to estimates by Bloomberg Intelligence.

These calculations suggest that the state-owned company would decrease production from 1.42 million metric tons last year to 1.41 million tons in 2024, while BHP would see an increase from 1.37 million tons in 2023 to 1.44 million tons for this year.

As a result, BHP is putting pressure on the state-owned company, which experienced an 8.4% drop in production in 2023.

While the Australian company produced a total of 219.8 thousand tons of fine copper at Pampa Norte, BHP's business unit during the period from January to September 2023, production from Spence, located in the Antofagasta Region, and Cerro Colorado, in the Tarapacá Region, increased by 2% compared to the 216 thousand tons from the previous year.

However, Codelco stated on March 28th that they are confident they will start to improve in 2024 despite the challenging year they had in 2023 in terms of operation and production.

"We expect positive news going forward and to gradually rebound until we reach a production level of 1.7 million tons by the end of the decade," commented Rubén Alvarado, CEO of Codelco.