Anglo Has an `Optimistic' Outlook on Demand For Its Commodities, CEO Says

Anglo American Plc, owner of stakes in some of the world’s biggest metal and diamond mines, said it has an “optimistic” outlook for its commodities as demand increases from China and other emerging markets.

“We are quite optimistic in terms of the outlook, driven largely by emerging countries,” Chief Executive Officer Cynthia Carroll said today in Seoul. “It’s driven out of China, GDP growth out of China and GDP growth out of India.”

The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials has advanced 13 percent this year, rallying to a 25-month high yesterday. Factory output in China, the top consumer of raw materials from copper to soybeans, grew at the fastest pace in six months in October. The nation’s economy expanded 9.6 percent in the third quarter.

Anglo American expects the “strong” demand for copper to continue, Carroll said. Copper has surged 35 percent in the past year as the global economy recovered from the worst recession since World War II and the dollar fell.

“We saw copper prices increasing substantially and we expect continued, very strong demand,” said Carroll, who is in Seoul for the business summit of the Group of 20 leaders’ meeting that starts tomorrow. The two-day business summit began today.

Refined-copper output will lag behind demand next year for the first time since 2007, the International Copper Study Group has said.

Copper futures for delivery in three months fell 0.8 percent to $8,787.50 a metric ton as of 6:20 p.m. Seoul time on the London Metal Exchange.

Anglo American, which has suffered delays and cost overruns at its biggest project, has secured two more of the “key licenses’ it needs to start operations at its Minas Rio iron-ore development in Brazil, Carroll said in an interview on Oct. 29.

“It’s progressing very well,” Carroll said today. “We are very much in line with what I announced in the interim results presentation.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Sungwoo Park in Seoul at spark47@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net; Andrew Hobbs at ahobbs4@bloomberg.net