Gold Silver Reports — Copper on MCX settled up 1.19% at 334.5 amid optimism that demand is improving in China, the world’s biggest user.
Commodities prices have been lifted by a wave of speculative investment, backed by a creditdriven pickup in Chinese-demand, with base metals caught up in the wake of a surge in iron ore prices. China’s copper concentrate imports surged 34% year-on-year to 4 million tonnes in the 1st quarter of 2016, according to China Customs data.
The big growth is due to the surge in imports during January-February, which were booked during December 2015 and early January 2016 when import profit remained high, said SMM. Release of new capacities, restarts at smelters from maintenance and domestic ore supply tightness also grew demand for imported copper concentrate.
The global copper-market has recorded a surplus of 120,000 tonnes during January to February this year, as mentioned in the latest metals balances report published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS).
It must be noted that the worldwide copper market had reported a surplus of 463,000 tonnes for the entire year 2015. The global mine production during the period from January to February this year totaled 3.27 million tonnes.
The mine production has grown by 7.9% when matched with the corresponding two-month period in 2015. Meantime, global refined copper output jumped higher by 8.3% over the previous year to 3.97 million tonnes. MMG’s Q1 report says its refined copper output was 38,057 tonnes during the first three months of 2016, down 8% year-on-year.
Technically now Copper is getting support at 329.2 and below same could see a test of 327 level, and resistance is now likely to be seen at 338.9, a move above could see prices testing 342. – Neal Bhai Reports
