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

To: Stephen O who wrote (1186)	4/22/2005 3:46:29 PM
From: Stephen O	Respond to of 2131

Norddeutsche Copper Charges Rise 43% From February By Simon Casey April 22 (Bloomberg) -- Norddeutsche Affinerie AG, Europe's largest copper refiner, said it won processing charges 43 percent higher than in February as mining companies are forced to bid for space at smelters. A trading company agreed yesterday to pay about $200 a metric ton for extraction of 10,000 tons of copper from concentrate, Norddeutsche spokeswoman Michaela Hessling said from Hamburg today. A February shipment was smelted at $140 a ton. Norddeutsche also will make 20 cents a pound for refining copper. ``We are expecting a firm trend'' for charges this year, said Hessling, who wouldn't identify the trader. Norddeutsche, which gets about 90 percent of its concentrate from contracts of as long as a year, is ``more interested that charges remain stable,'' she said. ``We don't want to see them as high as possible.'' Mining companies such as Melbourne-based BHP Billiton are producing more concentrate, a powdery material containing as much as 50 percent copper. Mine capacity will rise a fifth to 19 million tons by 2008, exceeding space at smelters by 1.85 million tons, the Lisbon-based International Copper Study Group said on April 19. Shares of Norddeutsche closed in Frankfurt unchanged at 15.37 euros. They have gained 45 percent in the past year, valuing the company at 513.5 million euros ($671 million). Smelting charges touched $20 a ton in 2004, less than one- third the historic average, after a fatal landslide cut output at Indonesia's Grasberg copper mine, the world's second-largest. Copper prices surged to a record high of $3,338 a metric ton in London this year, encouraging miners to expand. Norddeutsche produced 140,000 tons of finished copper in the fourth quarter. --Editor: Farr, A. Brown