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

To: the Chief who wrote (50)	5/19/1998 10:30:00 AM
From: teevee	Respond to of 2131

Hi, I have to believe that Asian countries will use good old American know-how to get out of the current economic downturn and to restore confidence. In other words, they will follow recent American advice and increase the money supply to appropriate levels. This will have a positive impact on copper consumption and perhaps absorb substantial new copper production which will be coming on line later this year. Also, I hear there is a national miners strike in Russia. One would think that about the only stockpiled metals Russians have left to sell are the pots and pans in the kitchen. Just maybe we are seeing a "cyclical low" which is a good time (if your are patient) to also buy cyclically low senior resource stocks. Time will tell. teevee

To: the Chief who wrote (50)	6/13/1998 5:12:00 PM
From: Mr Metals	Respond to of 2131

Copper Falls Amid Ample Supplies, Even With Slowdown in Chile New York, June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Copper futures fell for a second day as signs of abundant world supplies outweighed the disruption to production in Chile, the world's biggest producer, caused by a labor dispute. Truck drivers at the Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile, the world's second-biggest, were to meet today to decide whether to continue a slowdown that's reduced production at the mine for the last two weeks. The drivers are in a wage dispute with state-run mining company Codelco. With copper supplies in London Metal Exchange warehouses twice last year's level, the Chilean dispute failed to boost prices. Refined copper output exceeded demand by 3.8 percent in the first quarter, the International Copper Study Group said. Chile is only one of a handful of supply-side concerns, and even with lost production it's not a worry to the market,'' said John Gross, a vice president of strategic metals at BICC Cables Corp. in West Nyack, New York. ''Consumers aren't complaining that they can't get copper.'' Copper for July delivery fell as much as 0.6 cent, or 0.8 percent to 75.75 cents a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. On the London Metal Exchange, copper for delivery in three months recently was $11 lower at $1,685 a metric ton (76.43 cents a pound). Refined copper production rose 7.4 percent to 3.48 million metric tons in the first quarter from a year earlier, the Lisbon- based ICSG said, exceeding quarterly global consumption of 3.351 million tons by 129,000 tons. While strong demand in the U.S. and Europe has helped send LME copper inventories 23 percent lower this year to 256,900 metric tons, the stockpiles still are double the year-ago level of 127,325 tons. With weakening demand in Asia and an expected slowdown in the U.S. and Europe in coming months as factories shut down for summer vacations and maintenance, copper prices are expected to fall further. The pessimism over the Asian crisis is spreading wider and deeper,'' Gross said. ''The weakening Asian currencies, like the yen, could pose problems for copper.'' Before the current economic crisis, Asia consumed 39 percent of the world's copper, according the ICSG. 13:01:35 06/12/1998 Any redistribution of Bloomberg content, including by framing or similiar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Bloomberg L.P. Any reference to the material must be properly attributed to Bloomberg News. The information herein was obtained from sources which Bloomberg L.P. and its suppliers believe reliable, but they do not guarantee its accuracy. Neither the information, nor any opinion expressed, constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities.(C) Copyright 1998 Bloomberg L.P. BLOOMBERG, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Financial Markets, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg News Radio are trademarks, tradenames and service marks of Bloomberg L.P. MM