Industrial metals gained ground in closing trade yesterday after see-sawing in the early session. Better than expected corporate results from US companies and revised GDP estimates by IMF improved the risk-appetite among investors thus supporting the prices of industrial metals.
IN FOCUS
- First-quarter copper production in Zambia, Africa's largest producer, rose to 174,407 tonnes from 170,948 tonnes produced in the corresponding period last year, Zambia's central bank said on Wednesday.
- Improving global demand combined with a lack of supply in the second half of 2010 will see copper prices spike to record highs at $9,000 a tonne, British fund house Threadneedle said on Wednesday.
- China's apparent consumption of refined copper rose 17.5 percent in March, but some of the more than 300,000 tonnes landed last month may have gone into storage rather than real consumption, which will weigh on imports this month.
- World refined copper production exceeded consumption by 122,000 tonnes in January, versus a surplus of 159,000 tonnes in the same month a year ago, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said on Wednesday.
- Vale's Goro nickel project in New Caledonia is still not yet in production due to "hiccups" in its commissioning phase, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.
- China's Primary Aluminium Exports stood at 2212 tonnes up by 31.44 percent with respect to the previous year, customs data showed on Wednesday.
FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK
Industrial metals took support from the IMF's revised world GDP estimates in the last trading session. Today we have a number of manufacturing data from Europe. We expect industrial metals to trade firm in the first half of the session taking support from strong expectations of these numbers.
