Copper Prices Rise on China's Increasing Industrial Production
2005-04-20 08:33 (New York)
By Claudia Carpenter
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Copper prices in New York rose to a
one-week high after China, the world's biggest metals user, said
its industrial production increased in the first quarter.
Output at Chinese factories rose 16 percent from a year
earlier to 1.44 trillion yuan ($170 billion), the Beijing-based
National Bureau of Statistics said today, exceeding the median
forecast of 15 percent in a Bloomberg survey. Industrial growth in
China buoyed demand for copper in plumbing, electrical wiring and
power plants, sending prices up 14 percent in the past year.
``I am being assured by Chinese copper buyers that they see a
continued strong demand for copper in China,'' said Steve Solomon,
president of Solomon Metals Inc., a Lynn, Massachusetts-based
supplier of scrap copper, including to ``numerous'' buyers in
China. ``To me, the bottom line is that the same scenario that led
to higher prices 18 months ago is the same story today.''
Copper futures for May delivery rose 2.15 cents, or 1.5
percent, to $1.493 a pound at 8:25 a.m. on the Comex division of
the New York Mercantile Exchange, after touching $1.497, the
highest since April 13. A futures contract is an obligation to buy
or sell a commodity at a set price by a specific date.
Prices on China's Shanghai Futures Exchange rose to a record
33,630 yuan a ton ($1.84 a pound).
--With reporting by Nerys Avery in Beijing. Editor: Enoch |
