Copper Has Best Outlook, Aluminum the Worst, Standard Bank Says

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Copper has the best outlook among industrial metals because of its ties to Chinese growth, while aluminum has the weakest because of excess inventory and production capacity, Standard Bank Plc said. Copper will average $6,175 a metric ton next year, compared with an estimated $4,982 this year, the bank said in a report. Aluminum will average $2,190 in 2010, compared with $1,635 this year, it said. Standard Bank also expects higher average prices next year for lead, nickel, tin and zinc. In copper, “we see a finely balanced market next year returning to a significant annual deficit in 2011,” Standard Bank said in the report. “This should restore the uptrend in prices through 2010.” Copper doubled this year in trading on the London Metal Exchange as China, the world’s biggest consumer, imported record amounts, some of it for stockpiling. That helped compensate for a drop in demand elsewhere in the world as the global economy endured its worst slump since the 1930s. To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Wallace in London at swallace6@bloomberg.net