FCX: Copper + CHINA = $$$

One of the main reasons why I like U.S. based copper + gold producer Freeport McMoran (FCX) so much has to do with its still GROWING international business and 'leverage' to the Chinese economy. More specifically, FCX is minting money thanks to higher worldwide commodity prices and expanding international relationships with demand-STARVED countries like China, India, etc. FORGET the U.S for the time being...while the U.S. is in a housing recession it will be the GROWING/emerging countries that incrementally add to the bottom line/profits of copper producers like Freeport).

Per the below article, I'm proud to say that it looks like my China-copper thesis is still in tact as China is expected to buy/consume about 20% more copper in 2008 vs. last year...snipped from the below Bloomberg article:
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=alWlh3m3fv50&refer=home

"April 9 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's biggest copper consumer, may increase imports of ore used to make the metal by 20 percent to a record this year, said Trafigura Beheer BV, the country's top supplier. Purchases of so-called concentrate, or processed ore containing copper, may rise to 5.4 million metric tons from 4.5 million tons in 2007 as China expands in smelting, said Simon Collins, director of Trafigura Trading Shanghai Co., a unit of Trafigura. China would become the world's top (copper) buyer, surpassing Japan which bought 5.05 million tons last year....China's 11.4 percent economic growth in 2007, the fastest in 13 years, fueled demand for copper and pushed prices to a record $8,820 a ton on the London Metal Exchange on March 6. Investment in cities and highways has spread to the center and west of the world's most populous country, increasing consumption of metals for power, homes, factories and cars. "If you travel outside of Shanghai and Beijing to provincial capitals and second-tier cities, you'll see an enormous amount of development going on,'' Collins said by telephone from Shanghai April 4. ``I'm very bullish on China.''...Trafigura, a closely held commodities trader based in Amsterdam, is the largest seller of copper concentrate to China, supplying about 1 million tons a year, said Collins, who is responsible for metals and minerals operations in the country. The company sells more than 600,000 tons of lead and zinc ore, and about 1 million tons of alumina a year, ranking in the top five suppliers of these materials to China...Sales from metals and minerals totaled $11.3 billion in 2007, of which Asia contributed $5.4 billion. The company's total revenue, including oil, was $51 billion. The nation's consumption of metals will grow for at least two more decades because of a population shift from rural areas to cities, Collins said. "You're going to see a movement of probably 200 million people over the next 20 years to urban areas,'' he said. "

Data Courtesy: Bloomberg.com, snagged on 4/09/08.
Full Disclosure: I own shares of FCX.