Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | M | Metal Center News

Copper & brass: solid demand, but volatile prices: though the market paused recently for an inventory correction, mill and service center executives expect red metals to resume a modest growth rate for 2005.

Article Excerpt
While North American demand for copper and brass took a little breather in recent months, most industry observers--mills and service centers alike--are at least cautiously optimistic that 2005 will be another good year for red metals.

"Demand has been pretty strong--not a gangbuster like in 1999 and 2000, but quite an improvement over 2003," says Keith Kessler, red metals and aluminum marketing manager for Integris Metals, Minneapolis. He predicts continued growth in 2005, though perhaps at a more moderate rate than the double-digit increases of last year.

William Sabol, president of Copper and Brass Sales, Detroit, agrees that 2005 should be another "good, solid year" despite some softening of business starting in the fourth quarter. "Until the last 90 days, it had been very strong. Now it is just okay," he says, blaming an inventory correction for the recent slowdown. "Everyone is cautiously optimistic about the year as a whole."

Arthur Miele, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Phelps Dodge Corp., Phoenix, states that worldwide copper fundamentals proved to be very positive throughout 2004, reflecting continued double-digit consumption growth in China, strong growth in Asia overall, and above-normal growth rates in the United States.

Copper consumption in the United States grew by an estimated 9 percent last year, he says, pushed by the residential construction sector where housing starts rose nearly 5 percent and capital goods orders grew an even...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!