Copper Rises for 3rd Session in London After Inventories Drop
2006-03-13 12:23 (New York)
By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen
March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Copper rose for a third consecutive
session in London after global inventories of the metal used to
make plumbing and power cables declined.
Stockpiles tracked by the London Metal Exchange fell 375
metric tons to 132,575 tons, equal to less than three days of
global consumption. Prices have almost tripled in three years as
demand outpaced production, forcing manufacturers to dig deeper
into inventories.
``There's no justification for turning bearish yet,'' said
Andrew Cole, an analyst at Metal Bulletin Research in London.
Copper for delivery in three months gained $80, or 1.7
percent, to $4,905 a ton at 5:18 p.m. London time. Prices climbed
2.2 percent in the previous two sessions. Before today, the metal
had climbed 49 percent in the past year, reaching a record $5,100
on Feb. 7.
Copper futures for May delivery rose 3.6 cents, or 1.6
percent, to $2.246 a pound on the Comex division of the New York
Mercantile Exchange. A futures contract is an obligation to buy or
sell a commodity at set price by a specific date.
Inventories in Europe, the world's second-biggest copper-
consuming region behind Asia, have dropped to 375 tons, LME data
showed.
Demand will grow 5.9 percent in 2006 to 17.8 million tons,
beating production for a fourth consecutive year, consulting
company Bloomsbury Minerals Economics Ltd. said Feb. 20.
Global inventories monitored by the LME have increased 15
percent this month. Still, production may lag behind demand, Cole
said.
``Those rises are not signs of weaker demand,'' Cole of Metal
Bulletin Research said. ``It's stock relocation.''
Comex Bets
Inventories monitored by the Comex were 37,873 short tons as
of March 10, down from 6,814 short tons at the end of last year.
Speculative short positions, or bets copper prices will fall,
outnumbered long positions by 2,707 contracts on the Comex in the
week ended March 7, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading
Commission data on March 10. That's a 41 percent decline from a
week earlier.
On the LME, aluminum rose $30, or 1.3 percent, to $2,410 a
ton. Nickel dropped $100, or 0.7 percent, to $14,850. Lead fell $3,
or 0.3 percent, to $1,175. Zinc declined $15, or 0.7 percent, to
$2,275. Tin gained $55, or 0.7 percent, to $7,925.
--Editor: Casey (pjm) |
