News Briefing
Copper, which regards as an "economic thermometer" fell below the threshold of US$8,000 on July 1st and hit its lowest level since 2021. Such a fall indicates global economic growth will slow under the context of the tightening monetary policy as well as the energy crisis centered in Europe.  

Impact Analysis
Copper, widely used in electronics, construction, automobiles, home appliances, and other areas, is also an important raw material for the PCB industry, and its price trend is highly correlated with global economic pressure under normal conditions. As we observe the trend of copper prices on the LME (London Metal Exchange) in the past two years, the lowest point dropped at the beginning of the pandemic outbreak in March 2020, and copper prices declined due to the freeze of global demand. With the easing of the pandemic and recovery of the economy, terminal demands have greatly increased, so the copper price has gradually risen. After hitting a record high in May 2021, the copper price has continued to sustain a high-end level for some time. Nonetheless, global economic growth has fallen into a crisis of stagnation due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, high inflation, soaring interest rates, and the impact of China's lockdown measures on the supply chain since the second quarter of the year rendering demands for industrial metals to decline. As such, it has resulted in excess supply, reckoned as the main reason for the persisting decline in copper prices. 

The copper price has surged by nearly 20% this year, approximately close to the lowest level since 2021. For the PCB industry, though the sign can, indeed, alleviate the pressure of the rising cost of materials, the market is even more worried about the impact of the slowdown in demand brought upon the PCB industry as each of the major research institutions has respectively rounded down the growth performance for mobile phones, PCs and related consumer electronics. In addition, since negative factors such as high inflation and short supply chains have not yet eased, it is believed that it will be a difficult challenge for the industry in the second half of the year. Therefore, manufacturers would, in the short term, need to be more flexible with the allocation of production capacity as well as active destocking, and they should also adopt diversified product lines as an important long-term strategy in order to share risks and strengthen corporate resilience in the face of economic uncertainty.