According to Jonathan Barnes, senior copper analyst at Roskill, copper prices will be influenced by continued pressure on supply in the coming quarters. “So, what we might actually see is a supercharged recovery in the copper price this year, but actually next year we could see the prices more or less stabilize because this unique impact of Covid-19 and the dislocation to the scrap market suddenly is absent,” he told CNBC.

Experts at Citi say the metal could be overvalued going into the third quarter. “The copper rally over the past month, from $5,700 a ton to over $6,000 a ton, has occurred against a backdrop of flat-to-falling equity prices and bond yields, leaving copper looking overvalued by $220 to $420 per ton based on these historical relationships,” said the bank’s analysts.

“Overall, we stick with our very near-term point price target of $5,750 a ton (versus spot of $6,050 a ton) though we see a window for a pullback as the two to four weeks, and ultimately we recommend buying on dips,” they said.

They were echoed by Saxo Bank analysts, with the head of its commodity strategy Ole Hansen saying: “Copper’s recent recovery to pre-pandemic levels will challenge the metal’s ability to reach higher ground in the third quarter.”

The strategist explained that “a recovery in Chinese demand, combined with supply disruptions at mines in South America, were the triggers that finally forced speculators back into long positions following the break above $2.50/lb. The risk of a second wave – especially in the US and China, the world’s two biggest consumers – may force a rethink and we see no further upside during the coming quarter.”

Demand for the metal is projected to be stronger in the second half of the year, as economies and industries restart across the globe.

“We have a positive outlook and expect quite solid demand growth over the next few years,” Eleni Joannides, principal analyst in Wood Mackenzie’s copper team, told CNBC. “But while the picture is looking positive for demand, it’s looking even stronger on the supply side. So, when we look at the balance between supply and demand, we’re still looking at a surplus market for the next couple of years, and that will put some downward pressure on prices.”

Of them, 414 were outbound and 542 inbound, according to the Erenhot station of exit and entry frontier inspection.

These freight trains carried a total of 960,000 tonnes of goods worth around 1.7 billion U.S. dollars from January to June, up 65.6 percent and 2.7 percent year on year, respectively, the local customs data showed.

Initiated in 2011, the China-Europe cargo rail transport service is considered a significant part of the Belt and Road Initiative to boost trade between China and countries participating in the program. Amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, the service remains a reliable transportation channel.

The Erenhot Port is the largest land port on the border between China and Mongolia. So far, there are 38 routes of China-Europe freight trains via the land port.
Source: Xinhua

As part of the Support to Animal Feed Plant Growing Project, 10 hectares (24.7 acres) of cultivatied land was created with alfalfa seeds and equipment brought from Turkey.

A statement said the rising air temperature in Mongolia due to global warming has been causing various problems such as drought and the subsequent insufficiency of animal feed in the summer, making the country’s economic infrastructure and lives of animal owners difficult. Due to the harsh winter climate in Mongolia and the presence of about 80 million animals, the livestock sector is a vitally important sector for the country’s economy.

The project of sharing Turkey’s experience in livestock feed and farming areas with Mongolia first started in 2017, and has continued with a three-year trial planting in different parts of the country in line with the feasibility report prepared by Turkish agricultural experts who examined the soil structure and climate conditions of Mongolia.

As part of the project, 10 hectares of hedged experimental area in the Altanbulag and Bornuur districts of the Tov Province in northern Mongolia have been provided with irrigation systems, motor pumps, feed plant pressing machines, and back pulverizers.

TIKA has also provided laboratory equipment to be used for scientific studies at the Mongolia Agricultural University Faculty of Animal Husbandry and Biotechnology.

According to the report, the Americas were the most affected region, with an estimated 18.3 percent drop in working hours, or 70 million full-time jobs.

The report said there were multiple factors causing this global decline such as, shorter working hours, temporary leave — or furlough — as well as unemployment and “inactivity.”

The United Nations’ labor agency, the ILO, has outlined three different scenarios for a labor market recovery in the second half of 2020.

In its baseline model the ILO projected a 4.9 percent decline in working hours, or 140 million job losses, compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. The scenario assumed a rebound in economic activity according to existing forecasts, the lifting of workplace lockdown restrictions, in addition to a recovery in consumption and investment.

A pessimistic scenario would see an estimated 11.9 percent fall in working hours, or 340 million job losses. That is based on an assumed second wave of coronavirus cases, prompting the return of lockdown restrictions, therefore meaning a “significantly slow recovery.”

The optimistic model would work out at an estimated 1.2 percent decrease in working hours, or 34 million job cuts. Such a best-case scenario would be the result of workers’ activities resuming quickly, “significantly boosting aggregate demand and job creation.”

The director-general of the ILO Guy Ryder said “The decisions we adopt now will echo in the years to come and beyond 2030,” adding that “we need to redouble our efforts if we want to come out of this crisis in a better shape than when it started.”

Among the passengers, there were 94 families with young children, 23 pregnant women, 65 elders and their caregivers, 28 people with medical reasons, and 53 people with reasonable excuses such as finances and visas.

The citizens arrived on the flight have been put into 21-day mandatory isolation at the National Center for Communicable Diseases, Central Military Hospital, and other isolation facilities.

Meanwhile, two more patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total recoveries to 185, the NCCD said in statement.

All the 220 confirmed cases in the country were imported, mostly from Russia, according to the center.

A French national tested positive for the virus on March 10, becoming the first case in Mongolia. So far, no local transmissions or deaths have been reported in the country. Enditem

Lab tests confirmed that two unidentified individuals had contracted the “marmot plague” in the region of Khovd, Mongolia’s National Center for Zoonotic Disease (NCZD) said in a statement.

The NCZD said it moved to quarantine the provincial capital and one of the region’s districts about 500 kilometers south of the southern Siberian republics of Tyva and Altai.

Vehicles are temporarily banned from entering the region, the state-run TASS news agency cited Mongolian media as saying.

The NCZD said it has analyzed samples taken from 146 people who it said had contacts with the two infected persons and identified 504 second-contact individuals. Media reports suggested that the victims were a 27-year-old male and a young woman of an unknown age.

Mongolia closed a key border crossing with Russia in May 2019 on suspicion that it may have played a role in an outbreak of the plague, stranding several Russian tourists. A husband and wife had died after eating marmot meat in that incident.

Experts say the direct descendants of the same bubonic plague that killed 50 million people in the 14th century still exist today, killing around 2,000 people a year.