Standard Corporate & Investment Bank head of commodity research Walter de Wet will be providing insight into the current declining copper prices at this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba at the Cape Town Convention Centre.

De Wet, who joined Africa’s largest bank in 2007, and was a speaker at last year’s event, is expected to provide an update on the copper market, which experienced a fall in price of some 28% between the September quarter and the end of 2011.

However, in January, Mining Weekly reported that analysts predict a recovery by the second half of the calender year.

“What copper still has going for it is a supportive longer- term picture. With the longer- term fundamental bull case still intact, any episodes of dollar weakness will likely see dip-buying activity emerge,” says a commodities investment report compiled last year by De Wet, along with Standard Bank commodities strategist Marc Ground.

The report expects copper supply to be fundamentally tighter this year, compared with 2011, and, as a result, higher prices are expected.

“So, beyond the mid-2011 price correction, we still expect copper prices to resume an upward trend and even set fresh highs [in 2012],” notes the report.

This is as a result of the short-term Chinese demand adjust- ment running its course and as the “inherently bullish underlying fundamentals of the copper market reasses themselves”.

De Wet will address attendees during the Commodity Review and Outlook Forum, which will take place on February 6 at the Mining Indaba conference.