Lead prices fell on Wednesday as rising stockpiles in China and falling premiums for nearby material on the London Metal Exchange (LME) pointed to a better supplied market.
Benchmark lead on the LME closed down 1.8% at $2,115 a tonne after touching $2,101, the lowest since Oct. 3.
A deficit and dwindling stockpiles had pushed the price of the metal - which is used in batteries - to a 15-month high of $2,265.15 last month.
But recycled output is rising in China, the biggest producer, and demand is weak with a US-China trade war slowing economic growth, said CRU analyst Dina Yu.
The most traded lead contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange has tumbled to its lowest since July.
That is pulling down LME prices, said ING analyst Wenyu Yao, predicting that prices will average $1,965 a tonne next year.
Lead inventories in ShFE warehouses have ticked up to 21,411 tonnes from around 15,500 a month ago.
Headline stockpiles in LME-registered warehouses at 70,000 tonnes are also up from 10-year lows around 55,000 tonnes in July.
The premium for cash lead over the three-month contract on the LME has fallen to $2 from around $20 a week ago, suggesting the market for nearby metal has loosened.
However, one entity holds more than 90% of LME lead warrants, raising concerns over availability.
The roughly 12-million tonne global lead market will switch to a 55,000-tonne surplus in 2020 from a deficit of 46,000 tonnes this year, the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) said last week.
The United States and China are working to narrow their differences enough to sign a "phase one" trade deal as early as this month.
German industrial orders and euro zone business activity performed slightly better than expected, but the outlook remains poor.
China issued a sixth batch of quotas for imports of restricted types of scrap metal, including for 11,110 tonnes of high-grade copper scrap.
Benchmark aluminium ended flat at $1,810 a tonne as the cash LME contract flipped to a premium against three-month metal for the first time since January 2018, indicating tighter nearby supply.
Indonesia may decide on Thursday whether to allow a resumption of nickel ore exports ahead of a ban to come into force in January, a mining ministry official said.
The ban will sharply reduce China's output of nickel pig iron (NPI) and have a knock-on effect on stainless steel production, analysts said on Wednesday.
LME copper finished down 0.6% at $5,907 a tonne, zinc fell 0.9% to $2,475, tin gained 0.7% to $16,565 and nickel closed 0.2% lower at $16,245.
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