The Wall Street Journal predicts that China's demand for a quarter of the world's copper will resume as industrial plants resume production after being shut down to reduce pollution at the Olympic games. However, I hear others propose that many of those plants are unlikely to reopen because they were the most inefficient and polluting ones in the system.
China's copper consumption is one the leading factors in the higher prices seen for the commodity in the past couple years. It slowed in the first half of 2008, although it was not clear at the time if this was due to general economic slowdown or restrictions for the Olympics.
Arizona supplies about 60% of the U.S. demand for copper with prices set in the global market.