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

To: JakeStraw who wrote (1145)	3/22/2005 11:48:07 AM
From: Stephen O	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2131

Copper Prices Rise as Inventory Drops for 9th Straight Session 2005-03-22 09:37 (New York) By Claudia Carpenter and Jennifer Itzenson March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Copper prices in New York rose as inventories of the metal used in homes and appliances declined for a ninth straight session to the lowest in seven weeks. Supplies in warehouses approved by the London Metal Exchange fell to 47,325 metric tons, the lowest since Feb. 1. Stockpiles have dropped 8.8 percent since March 9. Prices climbed to a 16- year high of $1.521 a pound on March 8 after global demand grew faster than refined supplies, forcing manufacturers to use their own stockpiles. ``Lower inventories are always supportive of higher prices,'' said Charles Bradford, an analyst at Bradford Research in New York. Copper consumption will probably grow about 4 percent this year, leading to a supply deficit of 200,000 tons, Bradford said. Copper futures for May delivery rose 1.6 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $1.505 a pound at 9:36 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have climbed 11 percent in the past year. A futures contract is an obligation to buy or sell a commodity at a set price by a specific date. Copper for immediate delivery in Shanghai rose to the highest in 11 years on demand from makers of pipes, wire and cables. Inventories monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 8.1 percent to 36,872 tons as of March 17, the lowest in a month. China, the world's biggest copper consumer, imported 29 percent less of the metal in February than a year earlier because of cheaper local prices and the Lunar New Year holidays. ``We see this trade data as very supportive of our view that Chinese demand shall be a strong positive force through the second quarter, following a major drawdown of domestic inventory in recent months,'' Barclays Capital in London said in a report today. Copper prices surged 39 percent last year as demand soared in China, the U.S. and Japan, pushing inventories to a 16-year low. ``China has been a big issue'' in copper, Bradford said. Signs of demand in February were ``pretty decent,'' he said. --With reporting by Helen Yuan and Rob Delaney in Shanghai. Editor: McKiernan