April 20, 2010, 11:26 AM EDT

By Anna Stablum and Millie Munshi

April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Copper rose from a three-week low on renewed confidence that the economic recovery will lift demand for metals.

Poongsan Corp., Asia’s biggest maker of copper products, raised its sales target for this year on increasing Chinese demand, Executive Vice President Choi Sang Young said. In Japan, shipments of wire and cable made from the metal jumped 13 percent in March from a year earlier, an industry association said. Before today, futures surged 60 percent in the past year on higher consumption.

“Copper is a China and Asia story,” said Gijsbert Groenewegen, a partner at Gold Arrow Capital Management in New York. “It’s a thermometer for the economy. Now that the perception is that the economy is recovering, copper and metals will do well.”

Futures for July delivery gained 4.05 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $3.5585 a pound at 11:19 a.m. on the Comex in New York. A close at that price would be the biggest gain for a most-active contract since April 5.

Copper-wire and cable shipments, including exports and domestic business, rose to 60,200 metric tons last month from 53,198 tons a year earlier, the Japanese Electric Wire and Cable Makers’ Association said today. Japan is the fourth-largest user of the metal. China is the first.

Three-Week Low

The price yesterday touched $3.4725, the lowest level since March 29. U.S. regulators on April 16 sued Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for alleged fraud, spurring declines in commodity and equity prices as investors sold riskier assets. Goldman says the allegation is “unfounded.”

The MSCI World Index of shares gained today after two declines.

“We have seen stabilization in the equity markets,” Peter Fertig, owner of Hainburg, Germany-based Quantitative Commodity Research Ltd., said by telephone. “Investors had a first shock, but now they are ready to buy in again.”

Copper for delivery in three months climbed 1.6 percent to $7,817 a metric ton ($3.55 a pound) on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminum, nickel, zinc, lead and tin prices also rose.

--With assistance from Sungwoo Park in Seoul and Jae Hur and Ichiro Suzuki in Tokyo. Editors: Daniel Enoch, Steve Stroth.

To contact the reporters on the story: Anna Stablum in London at [email protected]; Millie Munshi in New York at [email protected].

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at [email protected].

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-20/copper-rises-from-three-week-low-on-signs-of-stronger-demand.html