Copper Rises a 2nd Session on Signs of Demand Growth in China
2005-03-28 14:02 (New York)
By Claudia Carpenter
March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Copper prices in New York rose for a
second straight session on speculation that demand is climbing in
China, the world's biggest buyer of the metal.
Prices on China's Changjiang Nonferrous Metals Spot market
rose to a record. Metals consumption in China, the U.S and Europe
is growing faster than supply, leading to a fourth straight global
supply deficit next year, the Lisbon-based International Copper
Study Group forecast on March 18.
``Clearly, the Chinese are in the market,'' said Steven
Savitsky, a copper trader at Hanemann Trading co. in New York.
Copper futures for May delivery rose 0.1 cent to $1.4545 a
pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices gained 0.6 percent on March 24. The Comex was closed March
25 for the Good Friday holiday. A futures contract is an obligation
to buy or sell a commodity at a set price by a specific date.
Copper for immediate delivery on the Changjiang Nonferrous
Metals Spot Market rose to 34,580 yuan ($4,168) a metric ton today,
the highest since the market opened in 1994.
Shanghai copper inventories fell 42 percent as of March 24
from a week earlier to 21,463 metric tons, the lowest since Jan.
27, the Shanghai Futures Exchange said last week.
--With reporting by Xiao Yu in Beijing. Editor: McKiernan |
