Nonferrous Metals Markets in Strong Tone Again

International nonferrous metals markets are surging up again. At London Metal Exchange (LME) on Wednesday, copper 3-month future price exceeded US$ 8,000 per tonne for the first time since July 14 and other metals including lead, tin and aluminium also soared up while the nickel price was already at the high level.In the copper market, speculative purchasing rushed with the expectation for the copper demand season of autumn, when copper users returned into the market trading after the vacation holidays in Europe and the USA. LME copper cash price became to US$ 8,076 per tonne at purchase price in afternoon trading on Wednesday and the copper cash price at New York Commodity Exchange became to US 370.20 cents per pound on the same day, both of which recovered to the level as high as August 9.Japanese copper users mostly expected the overseas copper markets would turn to the decline when the strike at Escondida mine of Chile settled at the end of August which continued since August 4. However, world copper demand is expected to increase while the supply is tightening when copper inventory held by LME and COMEX are currently at total over 140,000 tonnes of the historically low level. In addition, Chinese traders are participating in the markets to purchase copper and speculative funds are flowing into the markets before the negotiation start to revise the labor agreement at Codelco Chile. LME and COMEX copper markets are in the strong trend under the situations.