Copper advanced for a second day in London on speculation a rebound in U.S. manufacturing may revive demand for industrial metals. The price of copper has climbed 16 percent from a four-year low of $2,817.25 a metric ton on Dec. 24. An index of U.S. manufacturing new orders rose last month for the first time since August, the Institute for Supply Management said yesterday. “If the bottom has indeed been seen in the U.S. industrial production cycle, copper may well have seen its low,” said David Thurtell, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in London. Copper for delivery in three months rose $82, or 2.6 percent, to $3,257 a ton at 9:18 a.m. on the London Metal Exchange. Copper has gained 6 percent this year compared with an 11 percent drop for aluminum. On the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, copper futures for March delivery climbed 3.75 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $1.4685 a pound. “We would advocate building copper exposure as we believe it will be the first metal to see prices rise should demand stabilize and then pick up,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. London- based analyst Peter Mallin-Jones wrote in a report yesterday. Inventories this year will be 48 percent of the average for the past 10 years, compared with more than twice the 10-year average for aluminium, nickel and zinc, according to the report. Copper will average $3,740 a ton this year, Goldman forecasts. The average so far for the three-month contract is $3,289 a ton. Stockpiles of copper rose 4,100 tons and more than made up for yesterday’s slide of 325 tons, the first drop since Dec. 11. Lead advanced $9.25 to $1,114.25 a ton. Aluminum dropped $12 to $1,378 a ton, and nickel gained $45 to $11,350 a ton. Tin climbed $250 to $10,700 a ton, and zinc added $26.50 to $1,140 a ton.

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