The Copper rose sharply on the international stock markets and has made its biggest jump for the last nearly one year after the strong earthquake that hit Chile during the weekend. South American country is the largest copper producer in the world, it is expected a strong earthquake of magnitude 8.8 on the Richter scale to affect the international supply of the metal in the coming weeks. With copper delivery in May rose by 6.2 percent to 3.4870 dollars per pound in today’s times of e-commerce York Stock Market NYMEX. This is the biggest price increase within one day of April last year. The price of the metal rose by 5.6 percent to its highest level in five weeks on the London Metal Exchange from 7 600 dollars per metric ton. Copper is essential for the economy because of its wide use. It is used for wiring for telecommunications networks, manufacturing of pipes for water pipelines, automobiles and computers. This makes it one of the important landmarks of activity in the industrial sector. Economists called the metal “Dr. Copper” because of its ability to suggest trends in the economy. Copper rose by 140 percent in 2009, is presented as better than all the metals used in manufacturing and construction sector. However, increasing the risk of making metal in the next bubble in financial markets.
The earthquake that hit Chile on February 27, extractive companies forced Codelco and Anglo American to suspend part of mining activity. By Codelco have stated that they will be able to meet orders due to their mines in the northern part of the country remained unscathed by the quake. Copper is a half of Chile’s exports totaling 53 billion dollars in 2009. According to financial analysts, the price of copper in the coming days will depend on the extent to which supplies have been violated by the country. Chile is the source of nearly half of record imports of the metal in China in 2009, which reached 3.19 million tons. China has become the biggest consumer of copper last year, thanks to the tremendous growth in construction and industry. The price of aluminum, zinc, nickel, gold and silver also rose, but with oil supply in April rose by 0.8 percent to 80.32 dollars per barrel. California company risk management EQECAT predicted that the earthquake in Chile could cause the country’s economic damage amounting to 15 to 30 billion dollars.