THE COPPER TOP
March 28, 2008
Copper futures rose the highest in three weeks Thursday March 27th as inventories dropped to a staggering 7 month low. Stockpiles of copper are monitored by the London Metal Exchange. Supplies have reportedly fallen 41% this year alone, which has led to a 27% increase in the value of copper. Stockpiles have currently fallen to 117,225 metric tons. This is the lowest level since August of 2007.
Copper futures have soared to $3.904 per pound. It’s recent run up began over one month ago when reports that China’s inventories had fallen more than 30%. China is still the world’s largest consumer and evidence continues to support that demand is rising in that country. Concern surrounding the US housing slump and that notion that it will continue to slide is one of the only things holding back the copper market at the moment. On March 27th UBS raised their 2008 copper forecast by 17%. A Zuric-based investment bank has predicted that copper will average $3.50 for the year of 2008. This is a very profitable price for mining companies pursuing this metal.
Pinnacle Digest is continually monitoring China and their purchase of this metal. It was reported recently that Chinese imports of copper and it alloys rose 93% to 1.2 million metric tons in the nine months ended September 30th. This is compared to a year earlier. There has been a significant slow down in residential construction in recent months which is having an effect on the market. Copper has gained 27% on the year, and closed at $3.904 a pound on the Comex Division of the NYME Thursday.
It should not be forgotten that this metal is tied directly to the growth of the US economy. Global and domestic economic expansion moves the copper market. Pinnacle Digest is confident growth domestically within North America will pause briefly, but we are very bullish on the sector.
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Re: Protests could close more Codelco copper mines in Chile
And so it goes. Getting worse and worse. Remember what I predicted people, $5 copper by year end. By the producers, buy the producers, buy the producers.
Your welcome
Protests could close more Codelco copper mines in Chile
Protests could close more Codelco copper mines in Chile
Santiago (Platts)--18Apr2008
Violent protests by subcontractor workers which have so far paralyzed two divisions belonging to Chile's Codelco could close more of the state copper producer's mines, the world's largest copper producer said late Thursday.
"In the case that we see a clear risk to people's lives and safety, we are going to have to halt operations, not just at the request of union leaders but as a management decision," said Daniel Barria, Codelco's vice president for shared services.
So far, the protesters have managed to halt production at Codelco's Andina and Salvador divisions, with combined copper production of around 300,000 mt/year in cathode and concentrates.
Earlier Thursday, the FTC union, which represents the majority of Codelco's direct employees, called on management "to halt operations until the government and Codelco give full assurances that our workers can undertake their tasks and produce for all Chileans in conditions of safety and calm."
In a statement, Codelco said that protesters had managed to isolate Salvador, a city of 9,000 inhabitants high in the Andes mountains and home to Codelco's 70,000 mt/year mining and smelting complex, by building two large earth-banks using heavy machinery stolen from inside the division.
At Andina, in central Chile, protesters ended their occupation of part of the mining complex early Thursday morning, but management decided not to resume production "until further notice."
"The measure seeks to ensure the physical safety of the workers," Codelco said.
Codelco said production was continuing normally at its Codelco Norte, El Teniente and Ventanas divisions despite blockades of access roads and the seizure of some installations.
The leaders of the protests are calling on Codelco to pay productivity bonuses to the subcontractors, who are employed by service providers in a range of activities at the company's operations, including construction, maintenance and catering.
But Codelco maintains that it is meeting fully with the agreements negotiated last year, adding that productivity bonuses were only agreed with two subcontractor unions and not with the CTC group which is leading the current strike.
A six week protest led by CTC last year cost the company around $100 million in damages and 30,000 mt of lost production. ----Tom Azzopardi, newsdesk@platts.com
For similar news, request a free trial to Platts Metals Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?src=story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?products_id=68
Re: Codelco strike day 2
Interesting, I wasn't even aware of this. We all can predict what the strike will do for the price of copper. Up Up Up
Codelco strike day 2
the link provides an update on the ongoing strike at Codelco, the worlds largest copper producer
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN1738229320080417?rpc=44&...
Re: THE COPPER TOP
US Investment banks borrowed 32.5$ million per day last week and of the borrowed funds, 20% is anticipated to be invested in the resource industry. Should help all of us
Re: Alphinat Inc.(NPA.V) – Recently profitable SaaS stock
I found this link interesting and thought I would share it with you guys
http://www-304.ibm.com/jct09002c/isv/marketing/industrynetworks/howto/al...
The highlights I found were:
• on page 1 “Alphinat is currently working on 14 active leads,...” .”
• on page 2, center column, “ One satisfied customer, the government of Quebec, Canada, used SmartGuide to build a Web site, that now unifies information from 57 different departments and agencies.”
• on page 3 first column, refering to the IBM relationship, it says about Alphinat “...they also participate in the industry networks for banking, healthcare and life sciences, and insurance.”
Chile crisis powers copper's rise
Chile crisis powers copper's rise
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Kevin Andrusiak in Santiago | April 11, 2008
THE copper price is predicted to continue rising after breaking through the $US4/lb mark for the first time as the Chile power crisis deepens.
Chile's domestic users are bracing for possible cuts to their supply because a drought has caused dams feeding hydro-electric generators to run critically low and Argentina continues to deny the country gas supplies.
Chile produces about 40 per cent of the world's copper and the power crisis is threatening production of the base metal at a time of insatiable demand, from China in particular.
Analysts at the World Copper Conference in Santiago said there was no immediate end in sight to the current short-term bull run in the spot copper price.
Goldman Sachs analysts in New York predict the price of copper will continue at about $US9000/tonne ($US4.10/lb) for the rest of 2008 before climbing to $US10,000/tonne ($US4.54/lb) next year.
But in the wake of Chile's power shortage, many in the industry are revising their figures, with the spot price gaining about 30 per cent this year.
Credit Suisse expects copper to reach $US12,000/tonne or $US5.44/lb this year. Nedbank mining and resources financier Sanjey Bhoowanpursadh said copper prices were likely to remain high.
He said global copper demand would continue to grow by 3.7 per cent a year to reach 27 million tonnes by 2018.
But worldwide copper production would only increase to 18.4 million tonnes by 2010 and then weaken.
"Beyond 2010, it will shrink by 2.9 per cent as mines close," Mr Bhoowanpursadh said.
"The net result is a burgeoning gap in the market."
Oxiana managing director Owen Hegarty said that although the spot price would remain high, the industry was being plagued by capital cost increases that would ruin the chances of many smaller explorers getting into production.
Cost blowouts for bringing new copper mines on-stream have already blown out by an average of 75 per cent. "Demand is the perfect storm but supply is the perfect nightmare," Mr Hegarty said.
"The changing demand for copper isn't dependent on the US economy. At what price copper drops off, I don't know."
Bloomberg energy, shipping and commodity markets business manager Josh Eastright told World Copper Conference delegates that the tricky market conditions for copper had divided opinions about the future of the copper price.
"Copper has room to run," Mr Eastright said.
"The experts don't seem to agree on where we are heading. If you had the same scenario in the bond market, it would be chaos.
"I don't see the speculators driving the market. There is no outright appearance that manipulation is going on."
Re: BY THE WAY, COPPER CLOSES ABOVE $4 FOR THE FIRST TIME
Thats right people...above $4 and much more upside. $5 before year end, that you can take to the bank.
Re: BY THE WAY, COPPER CLOSES ABOVE $4 FOR THE FIRST TIME
this should bode well for Mosquito as they have 3.4 billion pounds inferred and they are just warming up... dissapointing performance in the market of late, but with numbers like that, it is only a matter of time, one must hope hunter
BY THE WAY, COPPER CLOSES ABOVE $4 FOR THE FIRST TIME
I DO BELIEVE