Reuters reported that Greater shipments of industrial metals into the US in July reflected improved economic conditions and import levels should improve further as the world's largest economy emerges from recession.

Data from the US International Trade Commission showed July imports of copper surged 52% from June to 54,249 tonnes, aluminium rose 48% to 189,671 tonnes and a 60% build in nickel at 3,753 tonnes.

In other encouraging recent data, the US manufacturing sector showed that its first month of expansion in more than a year and a half and US pending home sales hit a 2 year high. That demonstrated that fabricators and home builders need to secure more metal for a potential pick up in demand.

Mr Sterling Smith an analyst for Country Hedging Inc said that "What we should glean from this data is that perhaps we are seeing some general, overall improvement in metal-consuming areas of the economy."

Mr Shawn Hackett president of Hackett Financial Advisors Inc in Boynton Beach of Florida said that "Now that clearly we are seeing some stability and some pockets of strength in the economy, there is an amount of restocking that needs to take place just to keep the inventories at levels with which they can manage the current demand. A lot of people that over sold inventories in a panic are now buying some of it back."

Mr Bart Melek Global Commodity Strategist with BMO Nesbitt Burns in Toronto pointed to the 64.9% rally in the new orders component of the Institute of Supply Management's manufacturing index as a bullish growth signal for industrial metals going ahead. Mr Melek said that "If that's happening, you'd want to be restocking. I would expect for a few more months of accumulations."

Country Hedging Inc's Mr Smith said that the cash for clunkers was an over whelming success. He said that "We'll continue to see inventory replacement and a greater impact on the metal imports from the cash for clunkers in the coming months."

(Sourced from Reuters)