London copper fell to a one-week low on Tuesday, pressured by concerns over the impact of the Omicron variant and rising stockpiles while a firmer dollar made the greenback-denominated commodity more expensive for holders of other currencies.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.4% to $9,411 a tonne, as of 0250 GMT. Earlier in the session, prices fell to their lowest level since Dec. 6 at $9,398.
The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 1.1% to 68,660 yuan ($10,785.08) a tonne, having earlier fallen to its lowest level since Nov. 19 at 68,510 yuan.
Mainland China detected first case of the Omicron variant in the port city of Tianjin. Meanwhile, major Chinese manufacturing province Zhejiang is fighting its first COVID-19 cluster this year, with more than a dozen Chinese-listed companies suspending production due to tightened COVID-19 curbs.
On-warrant LME inventories rose to 80,350 tonnes, their highest in more than two months, with LME cash copper on the three-month contract flipping to a discount of $12.50 a tonne, first time since Sept. 17.
Chinese refined copper slipped to a discount of 30 yuan a tonne.
The dollar index hovered near a one-week high touched in the previous session, denting the greenback-denominated metal's appeal.
Attention was also on the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, due to start later in the day, where the central bank is expected to announce that it will accelerate the end of its bond-buying programme in order to clear the way to lift off interest rates.
FUNDAMENTALS
LME aluminium eased 0.2% to $2,648.5 a tonne, zinc was flat at $3,324.5, nickel fell 0.9% to $19,540 a tonne and lead was down 0.7% to $2,282 a tonne.
ShFE aluminium rose 1.4% to 19,150 yuan a tonne, nickel fell 1.8% to 142,210 yuan a tonne, lead eased 0.4% to 15,640 yuan a tonne and tin was up 0.5% at 285,730 yuan a tonne.
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