Copper prices in New York rose to a 15- year high amid forecasts that demand will outpace supply from mines and scrap yards.
Copper futures for December delivery climbed 0.45 cent, or 0.3 percent, to $1.4275 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange after reaching $1.4385, the highest since April 1989.
Prices have jumped 37 percent this year with a global supply deficit forecast at 701,000 metric tons in 2004, compared with 376,000 tons last year, according to the International Copper Study Group in Lisbon. Shares of Phoenix-based Phelps Dodge Corp., the biggest publicly traded copper producer, surged to a record.
`` This is a huge bull market,'' said Steven Savitsky, a copper trader at Hanemann Trading Co. in New York. ``I hear people saying it's going over $2.''
Warehouses approved by the London Metal Exchange, the world's largest metals market, hold 93,625 tons of copper, down 78 percent this year.
Open interest, the number of contracts held by traders and investors, was 93,997 contracts as of Sept. 28, the highest since Nov. 18, 2003, figures from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show.
``Open interest is going up everyday,'' Savitsky said.
roll on stage 2 optimisation, resource upgrade and new project development I say.
Looking for a potential $A60M profit in 2005.
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