Business: Copper Fever

Interior Secretary Fred Seaton, who got only tepid support from miners for his Domestic Mineral Stabilization Plan (TIME, May 19), last week won more enthusiasm with a new proposal for copper. The new one-year plan calls for Government stockpile purchases of up to 150,000 tons at prices up to 27½¢ per lb. (v. the present producers' price of 25¢ per lb.) in addition to the 10,000 tons a month the Government already buys for the stockpile. Western mining-state Congressmen like the stockpiling plan better than the out-and-out subsidy previously suggested, thus are expected to support the reciprocal trade agreements (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) instead of backing the recommendations of the Tariff Commission for tariff boosts which have already caused the U.S. trouble in South America.

The Seaton plan touched off a burst of speculation in the metal. Copper futures rose briefly; custom smelters boosted their prices 1¢ to 26¢ per Ib., and the free market price of copper on the London Metal Exchange rose to 25¢ per Ib., highest since September 1957, before it fell back. Though domestic stocks of refined copper are 253,463 tons, highest since World War II, traders figured that the stockpiling could cut down the surplus, pave the way for a rise from the 25¢-per-lb. price still maintained by primary producers. But copper miners pointed out that any real pickup would have to come from copper consumers, who have yet to increase their buying. Said Phelps Dodge's President Robert G. Page: "There has been more buying in two or three days, but this in itself is not evidence of a pickup in consumer demand. More likely such buying is speculative. It is premature to predict a rise in producers' prices."