Citi sees copper futures peaking above $8,000 by 2020

A "dramatic" crunch in miners' capital spending had set the stage for the price of copper to peak above $8,000 per metric tonne by the end of the decade, Citi said.

Citi's analysts said the worst investment drought copper miners had seen since 2012 had "eviscerated the copper project pipeline for much of the remainder of the current decade."

"The resulting period of deficit is, in our view, setting the market up for the most sustained price rally since 2010," Citi's David Wilson said.

In a separate research note also published on 20 February, Citi's Heath Jansen forecast the rate of growth in Chinese copper demand would moderate to between 3% and 4% in 2017, resulting in a multi-period deficit.

Company-wise, Jensen believed the high copper exposures companies which were most favourably positioned were: MMG, OZ Minerals, KAZ Minerals, Antofagasta, FQM, KGHM and Grupo Mexico.