Gold, silver creep away from lows: Gold continued to move away from Friday's 19-year low fix building on overnight gains in New York. But was still vulnerable to another downside attack, traders and analysts said on Tuesday. Silver also inched up shadowing gold. Technically the market was seen as oversold and while sometraders talked of a fresh assault on prices up to $4.50 an ounce, others said this would be difficult to achieve.

Floods hit metal firms: China's Yangtze River floods have caused losses to state-owned nonferrous metals firms equal to one percent of this year's output value in the sector, the Futures Herald said on Tuesday. Direct losses at enterprises under the State Bureau of Nonferrous Metal Industry were 181.11 million yuan ($21.82 million) and indirect losses surpassed 200 million yuan, the newspaper said. Flood losses at Jiangxi Copper Co Ltd reached 145 million yuan while Daye Nonferrous Metals Co in the central province of Hubei suffered 24 million yuan in losses, it said. Floods would affect the output of nonferrous metals this year only slightly because firms had huge stockpiles, it said. The floods have worsened the troubles of many nonferrous metal enterprises but rebuilding flooded areas could stimulate demand for metals, it said. The State Bureau of Nonferrous Metal Industry, formerlyknown as the China National Nonferrous Metals Corp (CNNC), made post-tax profits of 100 million yuan in 1997, far short of its original target of 1.0 billion yuan, state media have said. Industry officials blamed the drop in profits to low metal prices and rising costs for raw materials and transport.

LME metals rise in Asia seen: Base metals could show a slight rise in London Metal Exchange trading on Tuesday if they continued trends seen in the Asia/Pacific region earlier on Tuesday, traders said. Copper recovered during Tuesday trading to US$1,605/$1,609 at tonne at about 0530 GMT (3.30 P.M.) After opening at less than $1,600. This was still down on the previous LME close on Friday of $1,617, which the market had now left long behind, traders said. The trend for aluminium also upward, to quotes of $1,357/$1,360, up by about $2 during the day, compared with the last LME close of $1,362. Zinc showed some strength on quotes of $1,026/$1,030, up by about $1 a tonne, compared with the metal's previousLME close of $1,029. Nickel showed buoyancy to rise to quotes of $4,140/$4,160, up by about $5. This metal's last LME close was $4,120. Lead was steady on $537/$540 a tonne. "So far so good," one trader said. "It's not a bad sign." Prices would have been kicking down on Tuesday if bearish scenarios were swaying the market, he said. But it was difficult to call the London market, he added.

Singapore gas pipeline decision: Singapore's Economic Development Board chairman Philip Yeo said on Tuesday he hoped the results of a tender to construct a gas pipeline from Indonesia's Natuna field would be announced soon. Singapore and Indonesia in July sealed a $4.0 billion gas sales agreement, the first international pipeline sale from Indonesia's Natuna West Sea. Under the 22-year deal, Singapore's Sembawang Gas, a unit of Sembawang Corporation, would import 325 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas through a 640-km (400-mile) pipeline from the gas field in the South China Sea to Singapore's Jurongisland. "We hope to award the tender as soon as possible. The sooner we award the tender the sooner we construct (the pipeline)," he told reporters after meeting president BJ Habibie. He said eight international consortia had tendered bids. "The pipeline is worth about $500 million. We must have the pipeline completed by the end of 2000 and the shipment by April 2001," Yeo said. "We hope to get many Indonesian engineering companies to do the work."

Record production in TCC: The Travancore-Cochin Chemicals (TCC), limited, has created an all-time monthly production record by producing 5,576 mt of caustic soda during the month of august this year. A company press release here said production was 101.4 per cent of the monthly installed production capacity. Availability of power for full production was the reason for the achievement, the release added.

Dutch sugar beet yield down: The third Dutch sugar beet forecast for 1998 showed a yield of 9.1 tonnes per hectare white value, down from 9.6tonnes at the same time in 1997, the Institute for Sugar Research (IRS) said on Tuesday. This compares to an average yield during 1988-1997 of 9.4tonnes per hectare, the IRS added. Beet weight per hectare was forecast at 55.9 tonnes versus 60.3 tonnes in 1997 and an average weight during 1988-1997 of 59.4 tonnes. This is the third of the computer-based forecasts to be issued this season. The next forecast is due on September 15, the IRS added.