Demand pressure persists

Fears that demand might outrun supply have been lifting oil and other commodities from the temporary trough into which credit-tightening worries had cast them. While uranium recorded the first short-term blip in its sensational recent rise, oil traders did brisk business, as Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power strove to replace output from Malaysia’s earthquake-hit Kashiwazaki nuclear plant, while crude oil prices overall topped US$78 (£38.60) a barrel at one stage.

Tight inventories have helped push up crude oil prices. So have well-publicised problems with the USA’s out-dated refineries.

On the metals front, copper continues strongly, as does lead, but the recent star performer has been tin, which hit an all-time high of £8,000 a tonne. Production problems in Indonesia, the world’s second largest tin producer and a squeeze by two market players with an estimated 80 per cent of the London Metal Exchange’s tin have helped push the price to record levels.