Copper Prices:Copper Nears 3-Week High as Shanghai Stockpiles Fall to Record
Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Copper rose in London to near a three- week high as inventories on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell to the lowest on record and sales of the metal in Asia rose.
Copper stockpiles in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses declined 34 percent this week to 19,463 tons, the lowest on record, according to Bloomberg data.
``Asia is still supporting the market before the Chinese New Year,'' Roy Carson, trader at Triland Metals in London, said in a telephone interview.
Copper, used in power cables and electrical wire, rose $20, or 0.7 percent, to $3,073 a ton as of 10:39 a.m. in London. The price for forward delivery in three months reached $3,150 a ton on Dec. 31, a 16-year high.
Inventories in London rose for a second day to 45,550 tons, the highest in two weeks.
The dollar was little changed against the euro at 1.3040, according to electronic trading system EBS.
In other metals, nickel rose $75 to $14,475 and aluminum rose $4 to $1,832. Lead rose $6 at $931 and zinc rose $1.5 to $1,280. Tin rose $50 to $8,050.
Phelps Dodge Inc., the world's second-biggest copper producer, said global copper consumption will increase as much as 5 percent this year. This will exceed production from mines and scrapyards by as much as 200,000 tons.
``Growing urbanization in China and an expanding need for infrastructure, especially power generation, combined with a healthy export market will continue to support increasing copper consumption,'' Miele said in a company
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