COPPER PRICES CROSS $9,000 PER TONNE LEVEL
LONDON copper prices yesterday crossed the US$9,000 a tonne level for the first time since September 2011.
This is driven by a weaker dollar and hopes that demand in top consumer China will pick up after the Lunar New Year holiday break, says Absa Bank Zambia.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange climbed as much as 3.3 percent to US$9,199 a tonne, the highest since September 2011.
“The contract is now 10 percent below the all-time high of US$10,190 a tonne touched in February 2011,” Absa said in its daily market report.
Copper prices continued to soar on Friday, surpassing the nine-year peak seen during the previous session, as bullish sentiment towards base metals resumed after the Chinese New Year.
Copper March futures jumped to as high as US$9,019.16 a tonne in New York, its highest since September 2011.
The industrial metal is on its way for a third straight weekly gain, having gone up by nearly 15 percent year-to-date and 7.3 percent over the past week alone
Mining.Com Newsletter said copper prices jumped on Thursday to their highest in nearly a decade as top metals consumer China returned from a week-long Lunar New Year holiday, with brightening demand prospects and supply concerns underpinning the market.
According to the newsletter, this added impetus to a rally that had almost doubled prices since the height of coronavirus worries last March.
Benchmark three-month copper on the
London Metal Exchange rose as much as 2.1 percent to US$8,565 a tonne in early Asia trade, its strongest since April 2012, resuming its rally after a modest pullback in the previous session.
“The most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained as much as 4.7 percent to US$9,747.29 a tonne, a level not seen since September 2011.
“Underpinning the rally is resurgent demand in China, the biggest metals consumer, expectations of tight supply, and a rush of speculative investment, with many analysts predicting a multi-year bull run,” the Newsletter said.
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has published the terms of the US$1.4 billion loans the country secured from African Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) since 2017 for strategic imports and local currency support.
The publication of terms and conditions for all public loans, is a requirement in terms of Section 300 (3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which is fully provided for under the Public Finance Management Act.
Harare obtained the loans, totalling US$1.4 billion over the 36 months on three different occasions and in varying amounts; US$600 million in 2017, US$500 million in 2018 and US$300 million in 2019.
Zimbabwe has regularly imported key commodities such as maize (especially during drought years), wheat and fuel, at a time its own resources did not suffice to procure such.
The country has experienced some drought in the past seasons that compelled Government to secure resources elsewhere.
The Government, acting through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, guaranteed the loans, which were concluded by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) with the Afreximbank.