Freeport-McMoRan beat Wall Street expectations for second-quarter earnings on Thursday, as the miner benefited from higher demand and increased prices for copper.
Copper prices touched an all-time record high of $10 747.50/t in May. Bullish investors bet that demand for the red metal will increase further as the world economy recovers from Covid-19 woes and as investments into green energy sectors ramp up.
The average realized price Freeport received per pound of the red metal rose 70% in the second quarter, while copper production increased about 19% to 913 million pounds.
The company said production of molybdenum, a battery metal used in airbags, stood at 20-million pounds compared to 19-million pounds a year earlier.
The company lowered its capital expenditure guidance for 2021, excluding Indonesia smelter expenditures, to about $2.2-billion from $2.3-billion.
The copper producer's adjusted net income attributable to common stock was $1.14 billion, or 77c a share, in the three months ended June 30, compared with $44-million, or 3c a share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 76c a share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.