Stronger metal prices helped the commodity price index of Scotiabank pick up in January and move ahead by 1.3% compared with December. The stronger metals, forestry and agricultural prices more than offset a decline in the oil and gas sub-index.
In January, firmer prices for aluminum, nickel and silver offset weaker copper, zinc, sulphur and gold prices.
Copper, which edged down in price in January, moved higher in late February, economist Patricia Mohr notes. “The continued strength of copper reflects some pickup in U.S. demand, a tight supply situation in the U.S. and more aggressive buying by the Chinese now that Western credit lines have been reopened,” she writes.
German wire and brass mills continue to work off of a backlog of orders, Mohr says, and prices are also being underpinned by labor unrest in Chile and a halving of production at Lubumbashi in Zaire.
The all-commodity index tracks export prices of a variety of Canadian commodities, which are weighted according to their 1984 export values, except crude oil where the value of net exports is used.
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