Tin touches record peak

Copper rose steadily on Tuesday as poor housing data was offset by bargain-hunting while tin touched a record high, traders and analysts said. Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange ended the day at $8,275 per tonne, up $75 from Monday.
Despite fears about the impact on copper demand of a US recession, copper has gained around 23 percent since early February and hit $8,485 per tonne on Monday, its highest since May 2006. "Copper should be supported on the dips," analyst Robin Bhar at UBS said. "We've seen a fairly neutral movement in stocks today compared to the last couple of days."
Stocks of copper in LME warehouses fell by a modest 100 tonnes to 149,125 tonnes, after gaining more than 13,000 tonnes since last Wednesday. From the beginning of January stocks had been falling. "The question is where does the buying interest emerge? A lot will depend on the stock moves and some of the economic data," Bhar said.
Traders said the recent influx of metal, mostly into warehouses in South Korea, might be material originally taken out of storage for sale to China, but then re-warranted as Chinese spot prices failed to keep up with the surge on the LME.
"Copper might have a bit of a cooling off period," a trader on the floor of the LME said, adding: The metal, used extensively in the construction industry, ticked down in earlier trade after a United States house price index showed prices suffered their sharpest quarterly fall in 20 years.
The S&PCase/Shiller index fell 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter versus a year earlier, and prices may have further to drop, analysts said. Three-months tin prices hit a record high on Tuesday for the second day in a row, touching $18,000 per tonne. The metal ended the day at $17,950, up $180 from Monday's close. Zinc was softer at $2,490 per tonne from $2,498 while aluminium was higher at $2,975 per tonne versus $2,902 on Monday.
Aluminium has slipped in recent days on the metal's failure to conquer the psychological $3,000 a tonne level, but expectations are that rising electricity costs will pump prices up over coming months and years. Lead was firmer at $3,240 per tonne compared to a last quote of $3,220/3,225 while nickel was at $27,950 per tonne from Monday's last quote of $28,255/28,260.