The all-commodity index of Scotiabank was unchanged in April from the previous month. Economist Patricia Mohr reports stronger prices for metals and minerals, and forest and agricultural products, offset a sharp decline in energy. Mohr says that although the all- items index remains below year- end levels, the pace of decline has slowed in 1990.
The metal and minerals sub- index gained slightly from March. “The strength in base metals continues to be centred in copper, lead and zinc, with weaker fundamentals for aluminum and nickel,” she says.
Supporting the higher copper prices are a tight technical position on the LME, ongoing supply disruptions in Peru, lower-than-planned production by Codelco in Chile and strong demand in Japan, the Far East and continental Europe.
Following recent annual contract negotiations, metallurgical coal producers in Western Canada recently increased the price of their product to Japanese buyers by 2.6%, the rise held back by the appreciation of the Canadian currency, Mohr reports.
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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