Copper declines on demand fears

Print this page Posted on : 07-04-2009 by recycleinme.com

Copper fell in London, heading for a weekly drop, on concerns a weakening US labour market will damage the recovery in demand for industrial metals.

Copper for three-month delivery fell $61, or 1.2 per cent, to $4,974 a tonne by 11:40 a.m. on the London Metal Exchange. The contract has fallen 1.2 per cent this week. Futures for September fell 1.6 per cent to $2.268 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchanges COMEX division.

Rising Copper Inventories

Copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the LME rose by 1.5 per cent or 4,050 tonne to 268,275. Metal booked for delivery has declined to 4.6 per cent of total LME stockpiles, down from 21 per cent at the beginning of May. Copper prices may decline next week on speculation LME inventories will start rising as demand eases in the Northern Hemispheres summer, a survey showed.

Eleven of 14 analysts, investors and traders surveyed by Bloomberg, or 79 per cent, said copper would fall.

Shanghai copper stockpiles increased by 6.9 per cent this week, the Shanghai Futures Exchange said. Inventories of the metal rose 3,892 metric tonnes to 59,980 tonnes.

Aluminium slid 0.6 per cent to $1,630 a tonne. Nickel fell 1 per cent to $16,289, lead eased 0.7 per cent to $1,689 and zinc declined 0.7 per cent to $1,560.5. Tin was unchanged at $14,300 a tonne.

Source : Business Line