An examination of copper contained in international trade flows

This paper describes an analysis of copper contained in international trade flows ranging from concentrate to finished products. The underlying dataset was extracted from the UN COMTRADE database and comprises 365 Harmonised Systemcodes (H0). The data were aggregated to six different regions (China, EU28, Latin America, North America, Japan, Rest of the World) and reveal the relative position of these regions in global copper-relevant value chains. The examination based on contained copper as opposed to monetary values provides additional insights into the industrial basis for the economic development of the regions considered. Moreover, the examination of over twenty years of data documents not only China's rise to a dominant manufacturing center but also Latin America's development into the key supplier of copper concentrates and metal.