Rockwell Advisors: 2011 copper output growth to be lowest since 2002 – Xstrata.

Nov. 4, 2011 - PRLog -- Xstrata Plc, a producer of metals and coal across the globe, has told Rockwell Advisors that growth in mined copper output this year will be the lowest since 2002 as a result of declining ore grades, bad weather and strikes.

Production will rise by around 40,000 metric tons, about 1 million tons less than anticipated and the smallest gain since 2002, when output shrank by 207,000 tons the Swiss based firm’s Chief Executive Officer Mick Davis  informed Rockwell Advisors recently. “Despite 10 years of investment, the supply side is still struggling to keep pace,” he added.

This year’s global copper deficit, estimated by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to be the largest since 2004, has resulted from a lower concentrate of metal in ore, severe weather in Australia and Latin America and industrial action at mines in Chile. Most of the copper producers missed output targets in the third quarter, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report.

Xstrata’s copper output dropped to 223,606 tons in the quarter from 233,647 for the same period in 2010, while production at BHP Billiton Ltd. dropped 24%, in part because of lower grades and strikes at the Escondida project.

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