US, China seen boosting base metals demand

Jan 14, 2013 | 03:30 PM | Claire Hack

Tags  base metals, Goldman Sachs, aluminum, copper, tin, nickel, zinc, Claire Hack

LONDON — The prospect of a housing recovery in the United States and an encouraging outlook in China will bolster metals demand in 2013, according to Goldman Sachs analysts.

"While the U.S. debt ceiling issues have the potential to create some demand uncertainty over the next couple of months, the outlook for China has improved over the past month," they said in a note Monday. "We continue to believe that during the second half of this year an improving U.S. outlook against an improved emerging market outlook will further boost near-term prices."

However, as metal markets are weaker and only copper is expected to move into backwardation this year, the analysts’ overall commodity outlook remains somewhat more downbeat. ....





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