Copper on Comex Rises on Surge in China's Industrial Production
2005-08-15 09:49 (New York)
By Pham-Duy Nguyen
Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Copper prices in New York rose for the
fourth straight session after a report showed industrial
production rose to the highest ever last month in China, the
world's biggest user of the metal.
Chinese output rose 16.1 percent from a year earlier to a
record $71.7 billion after a 16.8 percent gain in June, the
Beijing-based National Statistics Bureau said today on its Web
site. China is the only major economy that's using more copper
than last year, figures from the International Copper Study Group
show.
``As long as you keep getting strong numbers out of China,
it's going to continue to encourage copper bulls,'' said Daniel
Vaught, an analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis.
Copper futures for July delivery rose 0.7 cent, or 0.4
percent, to $1.683 a pound at 9:33 a.m. on the Comex division of
the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices reached a record $1.689
on Aug. 12. A futures contract is an obligation to buy or sell a
commodity at a set price by a specific date.
China's economy, the fastest growing of the world's major
economies, expanded 9.5 percent last year when surging demand from
China, the U.S. and Japan helped drive copper prices up 39
percent.
Car production in China rose 55 percent as General Motors
Corp. boosted output to meet rising demand. Overseas companies
such as Dell Inc. are building factories in China to benefit from
the nation's growing affluence. Copper is used in appliances,
electronics and automobiles.
Copper inventory continues to rise in warehouses monitored by
the London Metal Exchange even as a strike at Asarco LLC's mines
in Arizona and Texas enters its seventh week, threatening supply.
Asarco Strike
Asarco, the U.S. copper-mining unit of Grupo Mexico SA, and
the United Steelworkers of America made no progress on ending the
strike at mines in Arizona and a Texas smelter and no new talks
are scheduled, said Pete Cinquemani, commissioner of the Federal
Mediation and Conciliation Service, on Aug. 13.
Copper inventory in warehouses monitored by the LME advanced
1,625 tons, or 3.2 percent, to 52,550 tons. Inventory rose by
5,800 tons on Aug. 11, the largest increase for almost a year.
Stockpiles remain equal to about one day of global demand, close
to a 31-year low reached on July 22.
``Copper traders are largely discounting the inventory gain
because it's a result of half of Europe going on vacation for the
month of August,'' said Vaught.
On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three
months rose $17, or 0.5 percent, to $3,604 a metric ton ($1.6344 a
pound) after earlier touching a record $3,615. Prices on the
Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 1.5 percent.
--With reporting by Nerys Avery in Beijing and Claudia Carpenter
in New York. Editor: Enoch |
