Commodities » Industrial Metals

Industrial metals (copper, aluminium, nickel, etc.) daily review (September 21, 2010)

Contributed by Nirmal Bang

By Nirmal Bang

MARKET ROUNDUP

Industrial metals future prices closed down on Monday, as investors took profits from earlier rise to five-month highs and looked ahead with caution toward new home sales data and a Federal Reserve policy meeting on Tuesday.

IN FOCUS

- Australia raised its forecasts for iron ore and coal exports on Tuesday, predicting that a pickup in Chinese steelmaking capacity next year will suck in more imports of the two main steelmaking raw materials.

- China's imports of refined copper rose 18.9 percent in August from a month earlier, up for a a second straight month, as importers received more metal ahead of the peak consumption season in the fourth quarter.

- China's top zinc producer Zhuzhou Smelter Group Co Ltd has agreed to sell 140 tonnes of indium ingot to leading Chinese metals trader Minmetal, the producer said in a filing to the stock exchange on Tuesday.

- Copper production in Zambia, Africa's largest producer of the metal rose 10.3 percent in the first seven months of 2010 compared with last year due to higherefficiencies in mining, the central bank said on Monday.

FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK

Industrial metals prices are trading mix on LME today. Today building permits and housing starts data are due to be released from US later in the session today. Any negative outcome from the expectations is likely to pressurize the metals prices today.