Barclays cuts zinc & copper, raises nickel
Barclays Capital, the investment bank of Britain’s third-largest lender, cut 2007 copper and zinc price forecasts and raised nickel and tin estimates.
By Agencies |
NEW YORK: Barclays Capital, the investment bank of Britain���s third-largest lender, cut 2007 copper and zinc price forecasts and raised nickel and tin estimates.
Copper for immediate delivery will average $6,025 a metric tonne this year, said Barclays, one 11 companies trading on the floor of the London Metal Exchange, in an e-mailed report on Monday. Last year, the bank said copper would average $7,550. It cut its zinc forecast to $3,700 a ton, from $4,200.
���Recent big increases in London Metal Exchange copper inventories are helping to keep market sentiment negative,��� said Barclays analysts in the report. Copper stockpiles in warehouses monitored by the LME have gained 15% this year, increasing supply of the metal used to make wires and plumbing.
The benchmark three-month LME copper price has slumped 11% in the same period. The average nickel price this year will be $32,750 a tonne, Barclays said, compared with a previous forecast of $31,294. Growing usage and supply disruptions have helped prices more than double in the past year. Two thirds of global nickel supply is used in stainless-steel production.
China, which overtook Japan as the world���s biggest stainless-steel producer last year, is consuming more nickel. The combined supply shortfall last year and in 2007 will be 57,000 tonne, BHP Billiton, the world���s largest miner, said in December. ���Most markets remain extremely vulnerable to supply problems,��� Barclays said. Tin will average $10,375, from $9,925, the bank said.
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