Demand growth in China, the world's top copper consumer, is likely to slow to 5 to 6 percent next year on a weak world economy and tight domestic monetary policy, traders and analysts at an industry conference said. Euro zone debt problems could affect global economic growth, while Beijing will not significantly relax credit to property projects, the participants at the two-day conference in the city of Jinan, Shandong province, said.
China's urbanisation and power sector will still keep copper demand growing. "The most needed for copper is confidence, of which now people do not have a lot," Yang Changhua, senior analyst at state-backed research firm Antaike, said.
Yang sees real consumption of refined copper rising 6.4 percent next year, from 8.5 percent this year, as demand from the power sector remains strong. Wang Fei, an analyst at Haitong Futures, said he was afraid that debt problems in the euro zone would continue and the spill-over effects would cut copper demand for China in 2012 as exports fall.