MARKET ROUNDUPIndustrial metals prices edged lower on Thursday, set on a downward path when the euro lost ground to the dollar, and also hurt by mixed U.S. economic readings and by short-term fund selling of metals. Aluminium was the only metal to be immune from the losses in this complex.
IN FOCUS- China's top copper producer Jiangxi Copper plans to increase refined copper output by 12.5 percent this year, chairman Li Yihuang told reporters on Friday. Output of 900,000 tonnes of refined copper is forecast for 2010 compared to about 800,000 tonnes in 2009, Li said.
- Russia's Urals Mining and Metals Co (UMMC) expects this year's refined copper output to reach 356,918 tonnes, up 8 percent from 2009, it said in a company newsletter seen by Reuters on Thursday. The company said in the newsletter that 2009 refined copper output totalled 330,129 tonnes.
- A Chinese media report that global miners are offering Chinese steel mills a 50 percent rise in iron ore prices was dismissed as posturing by analysts, who predicted a rise of 65 to 70 percent instead.
- The China Daily said China's crude steel output was expected to rise 8.6 percent to 621.5 million tonnes in 2010, a slower rate of annual growth than last year's 13.5 percent, without citing a source for the forecast. That would imply a rise in annual production of 54 million tonnes, compared to 68 million tonnes last year.
- Daily average primary aluminium output in China fell to 41,700 tonnes in January from 42,900 tonnes in December, provisional data from the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) showed on Thursday. The institute also said primary aluminium production in China fell to 1.292 million tonnes in January from 1.331 million tonnes in December.
- China Investment Corp, the country's $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, said on Thursday the investment environment would be more challenging in 2010 than last year due to economic uncertainty and high commodity prices.
FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOKIndustrial metals prices are trading in a tight range today on International bourses. We expect industrial metals prices to trade in a thin range awaiting the Non-farm payrolls data to be released by the US later in the day.
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