MARKET ROUNDUP
Industrial metals prices traded weak yesterday, pressured by monetary tightening and currency revaluation fears in China the highest consumer of metals and a strong dollar.
IN FOCUS
- Workers at the Shougang Hierro Peru iron mine and Cerro Verde copper mine will go on strike next week to demand better wages and a larger share of profits, union leaders said on Wednesday.
- Japan's output of rolled copper products almost doubled in February from a year earlier, mainly due to last year's plunge amid the global recession, preliminary industry data showed on Thursday.
- The copper surplus on the global market rose 63 percent from a year earlier to 365,000 tonnes in 2009, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) said earlier this week.
- Output of the copper and alloy semi-finished products as well as aluminium semifinished products in Italy, a major European producer, fell last year, Italy's nonferrous metal body Assomet said.
- The aluminium production in Gulf region is expected to triple to 9 million tons annually in 2020, compared to 2.15 million tones in 2008. This in turn will boost the region's share of international aluminium to more than 13 per cent in 2020, compared to 6 per cent in 2008 when smelters were established in the region following the success of UAE and Bahrain.
- Solomon Islands government has announced that it will soon put to international tender the Nickel Mine in Isabel Province.The announcement is testament of the CNURA government's strong commitment to expand the local mining industry as one of the major revenue earners when logging weakens in the next five years.
FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK
Industrial metals prices are trading firm on International bourses. We expect some bounce back in the prices of Industrial metals on the back of supply worries, but a stronger dollar will keep the upside limited in Industrial metals.
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