SMM 2010/12/14 Scrap Copper Prices By Region 

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- John Stephenson, a fund manager at First Asset Investment Management Inc., talks about the outlook for commodities including copper, gold, corn and crude oil. He talks with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's &quot;Taking Stock.&quot;
Copper dropped for the first time in three days as some investors sold the metal to lock in gains following its climb to an all-time high. Zinc, tin, aluminum and nickel advanced.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell as much as 0.6 percent to $9,166.75 a metric ton, and traded at $9,222 at 2:25 p.m. in Singapore. The contract reached a record $9,248 a ton yesterday after China refrained from raising interest rates, boosting the demand outlook in the biggest user.
&quot;The potential for tightening in China will continue to hang over investors&rsquo; heads but everything the government has done so far has had little effect,&rdquo; said Li Yaozhong, head of metals research at Yongan Futures Co. &quot;We&rsquo;ll get a little bit of profit-taking along the way but the uptrend remains intact.&rdquo;
Copper surged yesterday after China, which on Dec. 10 raised reserve-requirement ratios for banks by half a percentage point, didn&rsquo;t raise borrowing costs even as inflation jumped by the fastest pace in more than two years. The metal has gained 25 percent this year on stronger demand and declining stockpiles.
&quot;The fundamentals are looking good, especially for copper,&rdquo; Li said from Beijing. Until the Chinese government takes additional steps or &quot;statistics start showing some slowdown, we&rsquo;re going to see commodity prices move higher.&rdquo;
The metal for March-delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange traded 0.5 percent higher at 69,090 yuan ($10,379) a ton, after gaining as much as 1 percent earlier. Futures on the Comex in New York dropped as much as 0.5 percent to $4.1850 a pound, after climbing to a 31-month high of $4.2225 yesterday.
Higher Prices 
&quot;It&rsquo;s probably going to be $5 a pound in a year&rsquo;s time,&rdquo; John Stephenson, a fund manager at First Asset Investment Management Inc., said in a Bloomberg Television interview. &quot;It continues to be the most important industrial base metal and it will continue to be in demand, and there&rsquo;s really no supply coming on till 2012, 2013 in an appreciable way. So I think it will be very tight in 2011, I think prices will continue to go higher.&rdquo;
Aurubis AG, Europe&rsquo;s largest copper smelter, said the &quot;positive trend&rdquo; in 2010 will continue in 2011, with copper demand growing further, &quot;borne along by the global economic recovery.&rdquo;
&quot;In light of the expected high copper price, we believe global mining output will pick up further,&rdquo; the company said in an e-mailed statement today. &quot;This should lead to improved availability of copper concentrates in the medium term due to newly opened copper mines and thus a recovery of the treatment and refining charges.&rdquo;
The fees to turn copper concentrate from mines into refined metal may rise for 2011 contracts to at least $60 a ton for treatment and 6 cents a pound for refining, compared with 2010 contract rates of $46.50 a ton for treatment and 4.65 cents a pound, according to Macquarie Group Ltd.
Aluminum in London rose 0.7 percent to $2,348 a ton, zinc gained 1 percent to $2,345 a ton and lead increased 0.6 percent to $2,454 a ton. Nickel climbed 0.5 percent to $24,660 a ton, and tin advanced 0.7 percent to $26,330 a ton. 
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