Industrial metals (copper, aluminium, nickel, etc.) daily review (January 07, 2010)

MARKET ROUNDUP Industrial metals traded higher on Wednesday, with New York prices hurdling above the $3.50 per lb level, after upbeat manufacturing and auto sales data this week added to indications of economic improvement and raised prospects for better industrial metals demand. Aluminum and Lead too posted fresh highs on LME as well as MCX. IN FOCUS - Chile's Codelco, the world's No. 1 copper producer, said Wednesday it had resumed operations at its massive Chuquicamata complex after workers voted to end a strike, and said it would work to ensure it makes up any output losses. - Bulgaria's largest zinc and lead smelter, KCM, will boost output of both metals this year betting on better market conditions, the company said on Wednesday. - Cuba's unrefined nickel plus cobalt production weighed in at 70,100 tonnes last year, down slightly from the 70,400 tonnes reported in 2008, state-run media said on Tuesday. - Chile's Codelco, the world's top copper producer, will set a new output record for 2009, beating the previous peak of 1.73 million tonnes hit in 2004, a senior company source said on Tuesday. Codelco's Radomiro Tomic mine produced 307,600 tonnes of copper in 2009, up 7.6 percent from 2008 levels, Juan Carlos Avendano, the mine's manager, said. - Deliverable copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1 percent from one week earlier, while deliverable aluminium inventories rose marginally, the exchange said. FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK Industrial metals are looking strong for the day. Copper in particular looks extremely strong for the day. In the afternoon session we EZ retail sales data; any positive surprise in these number will further boost industrial metals prices.