Internationally, a widening supply deficit this year is expected to help copper outshine most of its peers in the base metals complex.
However, it may come as a cropper owing to sluggish demand growth in the Western world, which accounts for more than 75 per cent of global copper consumption, the analysts warned.
The forecast for the cash price for copper on the London Metal Exchange is pegged at an average $1,697 to $1,764 a metric ton this year, up 9 per cent-14 per cent from last year