The Hindu Business Line : Copper to rule firm: Lord Bagri

COPPER prices, that are ruling at an eight-year high on the London Metal Exchange (LME), are likely to stay firm in the next few months, according to the Honorary President of LME and Chairman of the UK-based Metdist Group, Lord Raj Bagri.

Speaking at a symposium on copper organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Lord Bagri said the benchmark LME copper price had peaked at $3,055 a tonne recently and remains "very tight".

"This scenario is unlikely to alter very drastically over the next few months," he said.

Prices have surged because of strong demand, particularly from China's booming industrial sector, and limited supply.

On India, Lord Bagri said that while the country is gradually becoming an important player in the global copper market, it still has a lot of catching up to do with China, both in terms of the demand for the metal and overall economic activity.

Import duties in India continue to be very high compared with the rest of Asia, particularly China.

He pointed out that China was a "surprisingly" open economy where import duty on 262 types of machinery was zero while the average for the remainder was just 10 per cent.