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Industrial metals prices climbed on Friday, boosted by a weaker dollar and gains in other commodities such as oil and gold. A slew of poor economic data from the United States sent the dollar to record lows against the euro and a basket of currencies, which helped gold and oil to rally to new highs.
Copper for delivery in three months, often considered a benchmark of the metals market and the real economy in general, ended the day at $7,870 per tonne, up $105 from Thursday's close.
"Record highs in crude oil and record lows in the dollar are together helping to insulate the base metal complex from the reality of a softer demand environment," Michael Jansen at J.P. Morgan said. The prospect of a US interest rate cut next week also lifted world stock markets, with the FTSE index rising 1.3 percent while London-listed miners BHP Billiton, and Rio Tinto added up to 4 percent.
Amid fears of a possible slowdown in the US economy, which could curb demand for metals, many people monitor Chinese demand - and whether or not it will be enough to make up for a potential loss.
China's copper imports in September were up 17 percent on the previous month, customs data released on Thursday showed, while warehouse stocks monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 11 percent. "The import numbers were strong and that's still keeping the complex up, particularly copper," Merrill Lynch analyst Daniel Hynes said.
"China is really counteracting that weakness," Hynes said. On the other hand, stock rises take the steam out of the metals. Copper stocks in warehouses monitored by the LME rose by 2,725 tonnes to 154,175 on Friday, taking the increase so far this month to almost 18 percent. "Recent inventory increases across a broad range of metals have tempered post-LME week enthusiasm," analysts at Barclays Capital in a report.
"In the short term at least, prices look like they will continue tracking equity market fluctuations. However metal market fundamentals themselves continue to look very strong."
Aluminium was up $24 at $2,538 per tonne, after hitting a seven-week high earlier in the week but the outlook remained sluggish. "We are bumping along the topside of the trading range; $2,575 marks strong resistance, and we think the market will have trouble pushing beyond that," LME ring dealers MF Global said in a research note.
Tin was up $200 at $16,450/16,500 per tonne, and steel-making raw material nickel was up $200 at $31,800 per tonne while zinc was up $35 at $2,900 per tonne. In industry news, the world's biggest copper producer Codelco will cut annual copper premiums in some Asian countries by 11-14 percent in 2008. Mexican copper giant Grupo Mexico said it expects to boost copper production to 970,000 tonnes a year by 2012, from 700,000 tonnes expected next year.

Copyright Reuters, 2007

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