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To: LoneClone who wrote (17616)	4/11/2008 9:23:12 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 193918

Chile copper cheaper for India even after freight? Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:58am IST in.reuters.com By Simon Gardner SANTIAGO (Reuters) - With demand for his copper products back home in India surging, Nirmal Thakkar is hunting for new supplies of the red metal and believes he can find it cheaper in Chile half a world away even after freight costs. Thakkar, CEO of mid-sized Indian family firm Citizen Metalloys Ltd, said he can't expand fast enough to satisfy voracious demand in India's surging economy. "Our intention is to source a reliable and reputed ... producer of copper cathode. We want to buy from Chile," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the CESCO/CRU copper conference in Chile. "We can buy in India, but the quality here is a little better and at times you get at a cheaper price, even if you pay the freight." he added. "It's because they have large production here. Sometimes when they have large stocks they sell at a good price." He's in the market to buy 15,000-20,000 metric tonnes of copper cathode in Chile a year, on top of the 10,000 tonnes he buys locally in India. He also is looking at South Africa, given it is closer to home and freight costs to Mumbai are lower. Thakkar says his 34-year-old family firm, which gradually evolved from metals trading into production of copper products for the power industry, is doubling in size annually, and expects turnover to hit $110 million to $120 million this year, up from $60 million in 2007. Business is so good he is planning to go for a stock listing a year down the line. "Fortunately we are flooded with business," he beamed, on his first visit to leading global copper producer Chile -- a 36 hour journey away from his native Gujarat. "Billions of dollars are being invested in Indian infrastructure from Europe and the U.S. because there's a lot of infrastructure growth, GDP is more, the country is growing, there's a lot of demand," he said. Projects to build metro railway systems in New Delhi and Mumbai will further increase demand for Thakkar's copper rods and flat products used in switch panels and the like. "They need a lot of copper, thousands of tonnes," he said. "Now we are going in for expansion plans because India is a country which is growing in leaps and bounds and with the power and distribution industry there's a lot of demand, so we want to expand our production capacity."