SHANGHAI: Shanghai copper eased for a fourth straight session on Wednesday, with futures hitting a more than one-week low, as a downward revision to Codelco’s 2025 output target still pointed to higher supply next year.
Sluggish Chinese demand and a firm dollar also pressured the market.
The most-active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was down 1.25% to 85,350 yuan ($11,982.31) per metric ton as of 0250 GMT.
Shanghai copper tumbled as low as 84,900 yuan a ton earlier this session, setting a two-week low since October 22 when it touched 84,500 yuan a ton.
The benchmark three-month copper future on the London Metal Exchange dipped 0.32% to $10,629.5 a ton.
Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, cut its forecast for 2025 output on Tuesday, but new goal still exceeds the 2024 level.
Output in the first nine months of the year also grew from the same period last year.
The forecast, higher than the 2024 level despite being adjusted lower, helped to ease near-term deficit concerns “that have underpinned prices since September”, analysts at Sucden Financial said in a note. Meanwhile, copper demand remained soft in China, impacted by high prices for the red metal.
The Yangshan copper premium, which gauges China’s appetite for imported copper, stayed at $35 a ton on Tuesday, down from $58 earlier in late September and a major retreat from above $100 in May.
Meanwhile, the US dollar remained strong, weighing on copper, though it eased slightly on Wednesday.
A strong dollar impacts appetite for copper by making commodities traded in the greenback more expensive for investors using other currencies.
Elsewhere among SHFE base metals, aluminium declined 0.98%, zinc slipped 0.55%, nickel tumbled 0.96%, tin shed 1.24%, and lead posted sole gain at 0.32%.
Among other SHFE base metals, aluminium decreased 0.56%, zinc lost 0.57%, nickel dipped 0.30%, tin dropped 0.60%, and lead was unchanged.