Bloomberg - Top Copper Producer Chile Sees Prices Staying High...

Bloomberg - Top Copper Producer Chile Sees Prices Staying High

Chile, the world's biggest copper producer, expects prices of the metal to remain high even if China's economic growth slows, President Sebastian Pinera said.

Chinese growth may slow to rates of 7 percent to 9 percent, which would still be enough to keep commodity prices high for a very long period of time,? Pinera, 61, said today in an interview with Bloomberg Television from Paris. Our expectation is for copper to remain high,he said.

Pinera, a billionaire entrepreneur-turned-politician who took office in March last year, wants to increase output and productivity at state-owned copper company Codelco. Copper rose the most in a week today as Deutsche Bank AG said prices probably will climb, echoing similar forecasts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

What we need now is to modernize Codelco in order to make it much more efficient in terms of cost, in terms of searching and looking for new markets, and also in terms of being friendlier to the environment,Pinera said today.

Copper futures for July delivery climbed 9.4 cents, or 2.3 percent, to settle at $4.107 a pound at 1:28 p.m. on the Comex in New York, the biggest gain since May 18. In March and April, the price dropped a combined 7.1 percent. On Feb. 15, the metal surged to a record $4.6575.

The metal price probably will average $4.20 a pound this year, up from last year's $3.42 average, according to Chile? central bank.

China, the world's biggest consumer of the metal used in wiring and plumbing, had economic growth of 9.7 percent last quarter.