Column: China’s commodity import trend driven by prices, not economy
China's imports of major commodities are often viewed through the prism of the performance of, and outlook for, the world's second-biggest economy.
Pre stripping work at Codelco’s Ministro Hales mine, March 2013. Production has ramped up at the mine over the last year, so it is likely partly responsible for the overall jump in output. (Image courtesy of Codelco via Flickr)
World’s largest copper producer Chile added in May 508,245 tonnes of the red metal, a 2.1% output increase, from a year earlier, boosted by new projects and operational improvements at an unidentified “important” processing plant, government statistics agency INE said Tuesday.
Production of the industrial metal jumped up 7.8% when compared to April’s totals, said the INE (in Spanish), despite dwindling ore grades in several of Chile’s aging copper mines.
From January through May Chile produced 2.43 million tonnes of copper, up 2.3% from the same period last year.
Production of molybdenum, a metal used to harden steel, surged 19.7% to 4,872 tonnes in May from a year earlier.
Though heavily tied to the fortunes of the Chinese economy, copper has been the only major industrial commodity to start the week off right. The metal closed Monday at $5,767 per tonne, but was trading Tuesday slightly lower. Three-month futures, however, were down 1% to $5,733.50 per metric tonne in London in early morning.
Companies including Antofagasta (LON:ANTO), BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP), Anglo American (LON:ANGLO) and Sumitomo all have operations in the country, which hosts some of the world’s largest copper mines.
2 Comments
amadeusk331 .
Haha, yep…I’m sure you think it’s actually due to the (ahem!) “market”… Or do you think it’s a major possibility that good old Goldman is dumping useless paper contracts on the market to drive down the price, while hoarding the physical supply in warehouses? ….JUST like JP Morgan is doing with silver, but what JPM is doing has a far greater effect on silver, than what Goldman is doing to copper. I really is amazing how stupid traders are, and are completely impotent when it comes to the ability to differentiate between the value of the physical commodity and a useless paper contract created from nothing, representing nothing, and worth nothing…something you can’t even wipe your asss with. I really can’t wait until these fools get wiped out financially. The next correction is gonna be a god one!
Mike Failla
Aging mines? They are aging well it seems. amadeusk331 is correct in his assessment. Its like deja vu, all over again.