Battling world hunger.

The strain on the global copper supply could remain as a trend spurring higher prices, though the good news is tempered by accompanying global supply shortages of energy and grains.

East and South Asia's growing economies are putting a genuine strain on the supplies of many commodities, said David Hightower, a commodities analyst who spoke at the Copper Spotlight session at the ISRI (institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc.) Annual Convention, held in late April in Las Vegas.

"In our opinion, there hasn't been a more bullish market for commodities in the last 28 years," Hightower, editor of the Hightower Report, Chicago, told attendees.

Hightower and his research associates see demand on oil, metals and food crops fueling a spiral of higher commodity prices and inflation. "When you have tightness of supply, those are classic building blocks for inflation," he commented.

Concerning copper, Hightower noted that even the high prices reached in March for red metals may not be the peak of the cycle, as many investment fund managers are "not completely turned on to copper."

In the near-term, Hightower said, "I see a run-up to $1.48 to $1.50 in the September to October time frame." That forecast is predicated on Chinese metals producers returning to buy in volumes similar to what was seen in late 2003.

"When China shows itself back in the marketplace ... we'll see the market put itself back into its bullish fundamentals."

The expected ceiling in copper prices will come in the form of increased mine production, which is in the early stages of ramping up, Hightower said.

More troubling may be the planet's ability to ramp up grain and petroleum supplies, which does not involve simply re-opening a shuttered mine.