London copper futures closed near a record high on Friday, with several Wall Street institutions issuing warnings one after another: global copper supply continues to shrink, and prices may rise further.

Théa Ziegler, a member of UBS's US equity advisory sales team, wrote in a Friday report: "Copper remains one of our highest-conviction commodity themes." She pointed out that demand growth driven by electrification and data center construction is expected to continue outpacing supply growth, and the structural support for copper prices remains intact.

Electrification, data center construction, and persistent supply constraints will continue to support the long-term constructive outlook for copper. For investors, the core conclusion is: supply growth is expected to lag demand growth in the coming years, which will support copper prices at elevated levels—even though tariffs and trade policy still pose short-term uncertainties.

On Friday, copper closed at about $14,622 per tonne.

Théa Ziegler believes the copper supply deficit will persist into the early 2030s. At the same time, two major variables—a mine strike in Chile and alarmingly low global inventories—are compounding, further compressing the market's buffer.

Chile Strike Sounds Supply Alarm

Natalia Corfield, head of Latin America corporate credit research at JPMorgan, noted this week that a strike has broken out at Chile's Centinela copper mine. Centinela is one of Antofagasta's main copper mines in Chile.

According to Bloomberg, the two unions behind the labor action warned that if the strike continues, Centinela could begin cutting copper output in as little as about two weeks.

This event adds another variable to an already tight copper supply picture.

Inventories Fall to Extremely Low Levels, Deutsche Bank Raises Target Price

Daniel Ghali, head of metals research at Deutsche Bank, warned last month that global copper inventories have fallen to "unprecedentedly low levels," partly because stockpiling in the United States and China is squeezing supply in other regions.

Ghali raised his London copper target price for the second quarter of 2027 to $22,050 per tonne.

Against this backdrop, Ziegler said the UBS team remains bullish on mining stocks highly correlated with copper prices. She wrote: "Top picks include Freeport-McMoRan, First Quantum, Hudbay, and Teck Resources. All four companies are believed to be well positioned to benefit from the expected multi-year copper price upcycle driven by both structural demand and a constrained supply response."