Chile May Raise Copper Production 13% to Meet Increasing Demand

By Tan Hwee Ann
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Chile, the world's biggest supplier of copper, said miners could raise the country's production of the metal 13 percent by 2010 to meet rising demand.
Production could rise to 6.1 million tons in 2010, from 5.4 million tons last year, Eduardo Titelman, vice president at the Chilean Copper Commission, said today. Codelco, owned by the Chilean government, and BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's largest mining company, mine for the metal in Chile.
Copper prices surged to a record last year as mining companies couldn't expand capacity fast enough and strikes shut down mines. Prices could fall 21 percent this year as supplies increase at a faster pace, the commission said last month.
``We think the trend for this year and next year is to have excess,'' supplies, said Titelman in an interview at a mining conference in Perth, Australia. Prices will be ``oscillating'' this year, he said.
Cash prices for the metal have fallen 14 percent this year on the London Metal Exchange to $5431.50 a ton, or $2.46 a pound yesterday.
Chinese manufacturers are likely to restock inventories this year after cutting back imports last year, which will help to sustain demand and prices, Titelman said.
Chinese imports of copper and copper products fell 19 percent from January to December last year, compared with 2005, the Beijing-based customs office said in January.
Long-term copper prices may settle at between $1.10 and $1.30 a pound, Titelman said.