Copper Gains in London on Speculation Canada Miners May Strike
By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen
Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Copper gained in London for the first session in four on speculation that workers mining Canada's largest producing deposit of the metal may decide to strike.
Copper has more than doubled in the past year partly because of supply disruptions from Chile to Indonesia. Workers at Teck Cominco Ltd.'s Highland Valley Mine in British Columbia, Canada, are set to vote Sept. 14 on whether to give union negotiators a strike mandate, a union official said yesterday.
``We've got potential strikes keeping people nervous,'' said Malcolm Freeman, managing director of Ambrian Commodities Ltd. in London, who has traded metals on the London Metal Exchange for about three decades.
Copper for delivery in three months on the LME gained $97, or 1.3 percent, to $7,557 a metric ton as of 11:01 a.m. local time. The metal, used to make wiring and plumbing, has jumped 72 percent this year, and traded at a record $8,800 on May 11.
Workers at Highland Valley are seeking a bigger slice of company profits after copper prices rallied. Two days of talks aimed at reaching a new labor contract will resume Sept. 18, said Richard Boyce, president of local 7619 of the United Steelworkers of America. Negotiations broke off June 20.
``I don't think the situation looks positive at all,'' Boyce said. Greg Waller, a spokesman at Vancouver-based Teck Cominco, declined to comment.
Highland Valley produced 179,000 tons of copper in 2005. That's equal to about 1.2 percent of the 14.9 million tons mined around the world last year, based on data from the Lisbon-based International Copper Study Group.
Stockpiles Drop
A 25-day strike that started Aug. 7 at BHP Billiton's Escondida mine, the world's largest copper mine, halved output, causing the company to suspend deliveries to customers. Shipments returned to normal, company spokeswoman Emma Meade said today by phone.
Copper slumped 4.6 percent yesterday, the most in three weeks, amid concern that a global economic slowdown may curb demand. Declining copper inventory limited copper's loss, Ambrian's Freeman said.
Stockpiles monitored by the LME declined for a fourth day, falling 1,675 tons, or 1.4 percent, to 119,850 tons, the exchange said in a daily report. That's less than three days of global consumption.
Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum fell $15, or 0.6 percent, to $2,480 a ton in London and lead dropped $6 to $1,290. Tin slipped $100 to $8,950 a ton. Nickel rose $400 to $27,900 and zinc advanced $61 to $3,321.
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