(Bloomberg) -- Copper traded
near an eight-month low, poised for a third weekly drop, on concern that
growth is slowing in China, the biggest user, and as global inventories
continued to climb.
On the LME, zinc and lead declined, while tin and nickel rose
Metal for delivery in three months fell 0.2 percent to $7,424 a
metric ton on the London Metal Exchange at 2:55 p.m. in Seoul. Prices
are down 1.5 percent this week and yesterday touched the lowest since
Aug. 3. Futures for May delivery were down 0.2 percent at $3.344 a pound
on the Comex in New York. Markets in China are closed today for a
national holiday.
Inventories tracked by the LME rose for a 34th session to 579,175
tons, daily exchange figures showed. That’s the most metal since October
2003. Reports this week showed an official gauge of Chinese
manufacturing for March came in lower than analysts forecast, while
euro-area services output shrank more than initially estimated last
month.
“Questions about growth in China and continued problems in Europe will
likely cap gains for now,” RBC Capital Markets said in a report e-mailed
today. “Falling bonded warehouse stocks of copper along with rising
physical premiums in China will likely prove supportive through the
second quarter.”
Stockpiles in bonded warehouses in China will fall by 80,000 to
100,000 tons in April, Macquarie Group Ltd. said in e- mailed report on
April 4. Prices won’t fall sustainably below $7,000 a ton until 2014,
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in an e- mailed report today.
Workers at Chilean copper mines owned by BHP Billiton Ltd. and
Anglo American Plc are preparing protests to push for greater job
security at a time when a strike at a port is restricting exports by 60
percent after Angamos port workers started protests March 16.
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