Copper Advances as Investors Take Advantage of Earlier Decline

Jan. 9 -- Copper gained in London as some investors took advantage of six days of declines. Aluminum and lead also gained.

Demand for the metal used in wires and pipes will grow 2.3 percent to 18 million metric tons this year, Stephen Briggs, an analyst in London at Societe Generale said in a Jan. 5 report. Production won't exceed demand in 2006 and supplies will remain ``tight,'' Briggs said.

``There is some buying around but mainly from the bank side, not from the Chinese buyers,'' said Jack Chen, a London- based trader at Man Financial Ltd., one of 11 companies trading on the LME's floor. ``They are waiting for prices to fall a bit further.''

Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange rose $4, or 0.1 percent, to $5,610 a ton as of 9:28 a.m. local time. It has lost 36 per cent since trading at an all-time high of $8,000 a ton on May 11.

The metal dropped last week as slower U.S. economic growth and rising stockpiles sparked concern that the copper market may move into a surplus for the first time since 2003.

Imports of copper and copper products into China, the world's largest consumer of the metal, fell 21 percent in the first 11 months of 2006 to 1.9 million tons because the metal was cheaper domestically than overseas.

Lead rose $10 to $1,565 a ton and aluminum increased $11 to $2,621. Tin dropped $75 to $10,300 and nickel declined $25 to $31,375. Zinc fell $52 to $3,668.