Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Copper - analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen O who wrote (1121)	3/15/2005 12:57:44 PM
From: Stephen O	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2131

Copper Rises on Sign of Rising Metal Demand by Chinese Industry 2005-03-15 10:18 (New York) By Claudia Carpenter March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Copper prices in New York rose the most in three weeks after China, the world's biggest metals user, said industrial production surged as makers of machinery and electronics expanded to keep pace with growing demand. Industrial production rose 17 percent in January and February from the same months in 2004 after a 14 percent gain in December, China's statistics bureau said today in Beijing. Industrial growth in China led a jump in global demand for metals, sending copper to a 16-year high last week. ``Maybe 40 percent of the copper consumption in China goes into the electric power sector to develop things like generating stations and transmission lines and generators,'' said Patricia Mohr, an economist at Scotiabank Group in Toronto. ``Because there's a power shortage in China, this is very much a positive for copper.'' Copper futures for May delivery rose 1.95 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $1.49 a pound at 10:17 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. A close at that price would be the biggest gain since Feb. 17. Copper has risen 11 percent in the past year as rising global demand eroded inventory. Prices on the Comex reached $1.521 a pound on March 8, the highest since March 1989. A futures contract is an obligation to buy or sell a commodity at a set price by a specific date. Copper demand in China rose 3.6 percent in 2004, the Lisbon- based International Copper Study Group said last week. Global demand climbed 5.6 percent. Supplies in warehouses approved by the London Metal Exchange, where copper rose to a record last week, have plunged 80 percent in the past year as production failed to keep pace with rising demand. China's government has clamped down on lending to property and steel industries to head off inflation, which rose 2.9 percent in the first two months of the year. China's industrial production growth is ``still a very good number but not quite as high as it had been,'' Mohr said. ``The electrical power industry is exempt from any kind of selective credit controls.'' --Editor: Stroth.