Zinc Rises to 3-Week High on Revived Demand; Lead Is at Record...

Zinc Rises to 3-Week High on Revived Demand; Lead Is at Record

By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen

July 12 (Bloomberg) -- Zinc rose to a three-week high on signs of revived demand for the metal used to galvanize steel. Lead pared gains that drove it to a record and aluminum was little changed.

Stockpiles of zinc tracked by the London Metal Exchange dropped 475 metric tons, or 0.7 percent, to 69,350 tons, the exchange said today in a daily report, the lowest in 16 years. World demand growth will exceed supply this year by 20,000 tons, said Kona Hague, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

``Demand is fairly healthy,' London-based Hague said today in a telephone interview. ``We've seen good consumption growth from China,'' the world's largest user of the metal, she said.

Zinc added $85, or 2.5 percent, at $3,556 a ton as of 10:08 a.m. London time. The contract earlier rose to $3,580 a ton, the highest since June 21.

Zinc has gained 16 percent from this year's low on Feb. 2 as consumers increased purchases and tapped into stockpiles. World demand will rise to 4 percent this year, after 3.7 percent growth in 2006, according to EIU estimates.

Lead pared gains after rising to $3,030 a ton, an all-time high for a second consecutive day. The three-month contract added $10 to $2,990 a ton as of 10:08 a.m. London time.

Demand for the metal, used in car batteries, will exceed production by 74,000 tons this year, according to Macquarie Bank Ltd., forcing consumers to tap inventories. Stockpiles tracked by the LME fell 975 tons to 41,950 tons, the exchange said today. They have declined 62 percent in the past 12 months.

Aluminum was little changed, dropping $4 to $2,830 a ton. Rio Tinto Group, the world's third-largest mining company, agreed to buy aluminum producer Alcan Inc. for $38.1 billion, leapfrogging United Co. Rusal as the world's biggest producer of the metal used in cans and airplanes.

Among other metals traded on the LME, copper rose $3 to $7,943 a ton, nickel climbed $200 to $33,500 and tin gained $15 to $14,175.

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