New Energy Weekly – Investment U

I’m just back from the 25th Annual Investment U Conference in Ponte Vedra, Florida

This is one of the original Agora newsletter groups – that’s the conglomerate that used to publish my research. And this was my sixth time speaking at this conference. Interestingly, I was the only person speaking about commodities.

And my focus was on copper. 

You see, there is an opportunity in copper today that may not last long. That’s why we’ve researched so many copper companies for the New Energy model portfolio. Right now, the copper price is falling – reacting to short term stimuli like the bank failures and interest rate changes. 

But those things won’t matter in five years. And the structural problems – the lack of copper supply – will remain. John LaForge, the head of real asset strategy at giant bank Wells Fargo said:

We’ll look back at 2022 and think, “oops” […] The market is just reflecting the immediate concerns. But if you really thought about the future, you can see the world is clearly changing. It’s going to be electrified, and it’s going to need a lot of copper.

He’s right. And he’s not alone in his thinking. S&P Global just published a report titled: “The Future of Copper: Will the looming supply gap short-circuit the energy transition?” (you can read an overview here). It’s a statistics-heavy document that lays out the coming shortage of copper. And it will be significant in the U.S. 

In the study’s “worst case” scenario, the U.S. will need to import 67% of its refined copper needs by 2035. In the “best case” scenario, the U.S. will need to import 57% of its refined copper.

I laughed when I read that. I couldn’t help it. By going electric, the world is setting up copper exporting nations as the next OPEC… “OCEC”?

That’s why the title for the talk was: Copper is the New Oil. Because it will be that vital to national interests within the next decade.

And that’s why we are researching the best investments in the copper sector today.

Sincerely,
Matt Badiali