Copper and most other base metals close higher on LME

LONDON (Scrap Monster) : The base metals mostly closed higher Monday on the London Metal Exchange (LME).

At the close of open-outcry trading on Monday, LME three-month copper closed 0.6 per cent higher on the day at $US7,415 a metric ton.

The price movement of base metals is heavily dependent on news flow from China-the top consumer of industrial metals. The Chinese industrial production figures which hit the market Monday could sustain the copper and other base metal prices. The Chinese factory data boosted copper prices, but fell short to hit the May 8 high of $7,480 per tonne.

Industrial Production in China increased 9.30 percent in April of 2013 over the same month in the previous year. The industrial output managed to recover from a seven-month low hit in March, but was clearly below the analysts’ consensus of 9.5%.

According to analysts, the prices of copper have bottomed out and are showing signs of stabilizing around the current levels. The increased physical demand for copper going forward may push the prices of the red metal higher.

Here’s a wrap up of the price movement of base metals on LME, as on Monday (13^th May, 2013)

3 Months Metal Bid-Ask Change from Friday PM kerb

Copper                        7415.0-7420.0             Up       45

Lead                2008.0-2009.0             Up      14.5

Zinc                 1862.0-1863.0             Up       4

Aluminum       1866.0-1867.0             Down 4

Nickel              15280.0-15285.0         Down 75

Tin                   20895.0-20900.0         Up       70

Aluminum Alloy 1760.0-1770.0         Down 30

Aluminum Alloy-NASAAC 1830.0-1840.0 Unchanged

Note:  The above prices are in dollar per metric ton.