Southern Copper Corp., one of the world's top producers of the red metal, reported on Friday a 50 percent increase in fourth-quarter net income from a year earlier due to higher international prices.

Southern Copper, which is majority owned by Mexico City-based Grupo Mexico, said net earnings for the last quarter of 2006 were $633.4 million, up from $420.4 million in the same period in 2005.

It also reported a net profit of $2.02 billion for the year, compared with $1.4 billion in 2005, slightly above market expectations.

Analysts in a Reuters survey had forecast annual net earnings for 2006 of between $1.896 billion and $2.011 billion.

"This increase was due principally to higher copper, silver and zinc prices," the company said in a statement on its Web site.

Between October and December, net sales rose by 41.5 percent to $1.65 billion, compared with the last quarter of 2005.

Chief Executive Officer Oscar Gonzalez told Reuters by telephone that the company's copper production was expected to rise by at least 10 percent this year from 2006, when strikes affected its operations in Mexico.

Southern Copper reported that its copper production fell 12 percent in 2006 from the year earlier to 1.34 billion pounds.

The company operates the Cuajone and Toquepala mines in Peru along with the Cananea and La Caridad mines in Mexico. Workers staged a four-month strike at La Caridad mine last year and a six-week strike at Cananea.

"While the market price for copper has seen a decrease in late 2006 continuing into January 2007, we believe the fundamentals for copper remain strong and expect that 2007 will be another positive year for the company," the company statement said.

Southern Copper said last month it had raised its estimates for reserves and mine life at the Toquepala and Cuajone copper mines in Peru, the world's third-largest copper producer.