Shanghai, Sept 23: The devastating earthquake in Taiwan is likely to raise demand for copper in reconstruction and boost firm regional price trends, traders said on Wednesday. "Taiwan importers may increase their orders for fabricated copper materials," a Shanghai trader said a day after the quake killed more than 1,700 people. He said Japanese importers, availing themselves of the yen's strength, had been buying copper and additional demand from Taiwan could attract an increasing amount of copper to East Asia. The high level of copper stocks in London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouses would amply supply the Asian market, the trader said.
In this context, China was likely to keep its imports on an even keel and rely on rising domestic output to meet the seasonal pickup of demand in the fourth quarter, an analyst said. In August, for the first time this year, China's monthly copper output rose to 95,900 tonne, up 7.5 per cent from July and 7.1 per cent higher than in the same 1998 period, according to the China Resources Information Centre.
"The monthly output was the highest in recent years," said the analyst, who attributed the increase to rising prices. Meanwhile, imports continued at a moderately high level. August imports totalled 4,70,000 tonne, which made the year-to-date imports to 3,61,000 tonne, more than double the amount for the same period last year.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.