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

To: Stephen O who wrote (1250)	7/13/2005 12:07:19 PM
From: Stephen O	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2131

Copper Rises as Strikes in U.S., Zambia Renew Supply Concerns 2005-07-13 11:41 (New York) By Claudia Carpenter and Pham-Duy Nguyen July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Copper prices rose for the sixth session in seven as strikes at mines in the U.S. and Zambia renewed concern of dwindling supply. A strike that began yesterday at Vedanta Resources Plc's Konkola Nkana smelter in Zambia may disrupt 150,000 metric tons of annual production. Workers walked off the job at Asarco Inc.'s Arizona mines this month. Copper prices fell 1.4 percent yesterday after an eight-day strike ended at a mine in Chile. Global copper inventories are at a 31-year low. ``I just think any kind of dip you see is a buying opportunity until further notice,'' said Peter Ligotti, a trader at William J. O'Reilly Inc. in New York. ``This market's going higher.'' Copper futures for September delivery rose 0.7 cent, or 0.5 percent, to $1.546 a pound at 11:33 a.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices earlier gained as much as 2 percent. A futures contract is an obligation to buy or sell a commodity at a set price for delivery by a specific date. Inventories monitored by the London Metal Exchange today fell 1,000 metric tons, or 3.5 percent, to 27,775 metric tons, the lowest since July 1974. Metorex Ltd. workers at the company's Chibuluma mine in Zambia today joined a strike over pay at mines run by Vedanta, Kaunda Lembalemba, the country's mines minister, said. Metorex denied a strike was under way. `Join Their Friends' ``They decided to join their friends this morning,'' Lembalemba said in a telephone interview from Lusaka, Zambia's capital. About 400 workers are on strike, Lembalemba said. Zambia is Africa's biggest copper producer with output of 380,000 tons last year, Caleb Fundanga, central bank governor, said on April 13. He forecast a 45 percent surge in production this year. A two week-long strike at Asarco may also reduce supplies. About 1,500 Asarco employees have been on strike since July 2. Talks currently aren't scheduled with Asarco, Terry Bonds, head of the United Steelworkers Union District 12 office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said today in a telephone interview. Asarco is a unit of Grupo Mexico SA. Barclays Capital said in a report that Asarco has declared force majeure because of the strike. It didn't give details on the number of contracts affected or deliveries canceled. Bonds also said the company has delayed or halted sales. Calls to Asarco's Chris Strand, senior manager of copper sales in Phoenix, were not immediately returned. Standard & Poor's yesterday cut Asarco's credit rating to CCC from BB-. A CCC bond is currently vulnerable to nonpayment, S&P says. The rating outlook was reduced to negative from positive amid concern about the length of the strike, S&P said. On the LME, the world's biggest metal exchange, copper for delivery in three months rose $5 or 0.2 percent to $3,343 a metric ton ($1.5161 a pound). Prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.6 percent today. Before today, copper was the only metal to post a gain this year on the LME. Copper, used in cars, homes and appliances, has climbed 6 percent. Lead has dropped 15 percent with tin down 9 percent, aluminum 7.8 percent, zinc 2.9 percent and nickel 0.7 percent. --With reporting by Simon Casey in London and Antony Sguazzin and Anthony Mukwita in Johannesburg. Editor: McKiernan