Copper prices end steady

LONDON: Copper steadied on Monday as slowing manufacturing activity in top consumer China and a stronger dollar weighed on sentiment while mounting concerns about supplies helped to support prices, metal traders said.

Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange were little changed at USD10,887 a metric ton in official rings. Worries about shortages pushed it to a record high of USD11,200 last week.

Traders said that easing trade tensions between the United States and China were a plus. China’s factory activity in October expanded at a slower pace as new orders and output waned owing to tariff anxiety, a private-sector survey taken when Trump had threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods showed on Monday.

Indicating weak purchases is the Yangshan copper premium, a gauge of China’s appetite for importing copper. The premium has dropped to USD36 a ton, from USD58 in late September and USD100 in May.

Stocks of copper in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange have risen 45percent since late August to 116,140 tons, suggesting surpluses in China.

The dollar has been firmer since Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week that a lack of federal government data could prevent the central bank from making another interest rate cut this year. Concerns about mine supply owing to disruptions in Indonesia, Chile and Africa were compounded last week by Glencore and rival Anglo American reporting lower copper production in the first nine months of 2025.

Despite the disruptions, analysts at Goldman Sachs do not believe that the fundamental tightness expected by the market will emerge over the next six months.

“Even accounting for a sizeable decline in global refined production, we hold to our view that the market will be in a small surplus in 2026, consistent with our USD10,500/t 2026 copper price forecast,” they said.

In other metals, aluminium rose 0.8percent to USD2,906.5 a ton, zinc gained 1percent to USD3,086, lead added 0.5percent to USD2,027.5, tin was up 0.6 percent at USD36,290 and nickel lost 0.3 percent to USD15,175.