Commodities » Industrial Metals

Industrial metals (copper, aluminium, nickel, etc.) daily review (September 07, 2010)

Contributed by Nirmal Bang

By Nirmal Bang

MARKET ROUNDUP

Industrial metals prices traded firm yesterday as investors bet on improved demand following better-than-forecast jobs data in the United States, the world's largest economy.

IN FOCUS

- KGHM, Europe's No. 2 copper producer, raised its 2010 net profit goal by 35 percent to 3.9 billion zlotys ($1.3 billion), near the high end of expectations thanks largely to resurgent copper prices.

- Australian miner Western Areas NL on Tuesday reported record nickel-in-ore output of 6,278 tonnes for July and August, ahead of its forecasts, and said it was confident of producing 25,000 tonnes for the year to June 2011 from its Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll mines.

- Bulgaria's largest zinc and lead smelter, KCM, will raise output of both metals this year due to better conditions on the global markets, a senior official said in an interview

- Thirty steel mills in Tangshan, the capital of Hebei province in northern China, have been ordered to slash steel output by up to 70 percent from September, officials from several of those mills told Reuters.

- The abolition of a decades-old annual iron ore pricing mechanism has damaged the long-term stable relationship between iron ore majors and Chinese steel mills, a senior official at Chinese metals trader Minmetals said on Monday.

FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK

Industrial metals prices are trading lower on international bourses. We expect some profit-taking to hit the prices of industrial metals after a series of continuous upward rally.