LONDON: Copper prices in London fell on Tuesday after four sessions of gains, retreating on slower manufacturing activity growth in top consumer China but still poised for the largest monthly jump in more than three years owing to supply concerns.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.6% at $10,070.50 a metric ton in official open-outcry trading after touching a two-year high of $10,208.
Copper is the only LME base metal maintaining usual turnover levels in otherwise thin trading, with the Shanghai Futures Exchange closing for a public holiday over May 1-5, said Alastair Munro at broker Marex.
“Cocoa’s 15% plunge yesterday and the recent corrections in gold and oil are worthy reminders that we can’t just go up in a straight line,” he added Copper prices are on track for a 13% gain this month, their biggest since February 2021, after BHP Group’s bid for Anglo American focused attention on future supply tightness from rising demand for energy transition and artificial intelligence.
However, concerns remain over current Chinese demand with little sign yet of tight supplies. The global copper market is expected to be in surplus this year and in 2025, the International Copper Study Group said on Monday.
Aluminium fell 0.6% to $2,575.5 a ton, shrugging off daily data showing that available stocks in LME-registered warehouses dropped to 131,875 tons, the lowest in at least 26 years, with 21,500 tons marked to be sent out.
Inventories of the metal have been subject to so-called rent share deals in April, sources said this month, with traders taking Russian-made aluminium from the warehouses and returning it at a later date. In other metals, zinc lost 0.4% to $2,930.50 a ton, lead slipped 0.5% to $2,220, tin was down 1.4% at $32,100 and nickel edged up 0.1% to $19,160.
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