Copper is expected to remain the darling of base metals through 2011, according to market participants, voicing confidence that the red metal will see prices rise further throughout the year after setting records at the end of 2010."
No doubt that commodities have all outperformed and will continue to attract fresh investment," a London Metal Exchange Category II trader told AMM. "Hardly anybody is talking copper under $10,000 / Per tonne."
Physically backed ETFs will be the wild card in terms of investment demand in 2011. ETF Securities USA LLC, New York, launched a physically backed copper fund in December that held 1,445 tonnes after its first 10 trading days and JPMorgan Chase & Co. and BlackRock Asset Management International Inc. have each filed to launch similar funds that will hold up to 61,800 tonnes and 121,200 tonnes of metal, respectively.
Others remain skeptical that the funds will gain enough traction to truly disrupt the markets. Even so, general investor demand for all forms of investment products is likely to rise.
While all base metals are facing similar fundamental demand growth, especially among emerging markets, analysts say copper should lead the pack through 2011 due to supply side onstraints.
"The supply/demand fundamentals do look probably the best out of any metal, in terms of the perceived supply shortfall and the critically low level of stocks that we're going to see," Bhar said. Credit Agricole pegs the 2011 copper price at $9,750 per tonne.
While the declines are dramatic in percentage terms, the stocks are much healthier than in 2008; when daily LME stocks for example: Averaged around 175,000 tonnes. Even though stocks have not approached 2008 levels and the fact that the figures trended downward through 2010 remains an indicator to watch this year.
Lifeline of Mumbaities is Local Railway. Lifeline for the world is - Aluminium, Copper, Crude, Gold, Lead, Natural Gas, Nickel, Silver, Zinc. |
No comments:
Post a Comment