Metorex Sees Higher Copper Prices This Year on China (Update2)

March 2 (Bloomberg) -- Metorex Ltd., a copper producer in Africa, sees prices of the metal rising this year to $6,800 to $7,000 a metric ton on growth in China and other developing nations, Chief Executive Officer Terence Goodlace said.

"Copper fundamentally is in a pretty position," Goodlace said in a telephone interview from Johannesburg today.

Prices more than doubled last year as the U.S., Europe and Japan moved out of recession, with copper for immediate delivery averaging $5,178 a ton in London trading. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its 2010 forecast to $7,716 a ton, from an earlier estimate of $6,614, it said in a report yesterday.

Metorex rose 37 cents, or 9.6 percent, to 4.24 rand in Johannesburg trading after forecasting copper output in the fiscal third-quarter through March of 12,500 tons. It also estimated cobalt output of total 750 tons. The metals contribute about 75 percent of revenue, Bloomberg data show.

The company reported a net loss for the six months through December of 453.9 million rand ($59 million), compared with profit of 667.6 million rand the previous year, it said.