Copper consolidates after strongest week since May

Copper consolidated above $14,000 on Monday after posting its strongest weekly gain since May, as concerns that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s copper concentrate export ban could hit supply eased and some physical indicators in top consumer China softened.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange edged 0.1% higher to $14,089.50 a ton as of 0240 GMT, while the most-active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 0.35% to 107,640 yuan ($15,956.12) a ton.

Both London and Shanghai copper saw their strongest week since early May last week, rising 2.07% and 2.34%, respectively.

Goldman Sachs said on Sunday it expected no material impact on global copper balances from Congo’s ban, saying the measure largely consolidated a long-standing policy and affected trade flows that had already shrunk sharply.

In China, data released over the weekend showed consumer inflation slowed in July, while producer-price inflation eased to 3.5% from 4.1% in June, pointing to still-subdued domestic demand.

The Yangshan copper premium a gauge of China’s appetite for imported copper, fell to $101 a ton on Friday, its lowest since July 20.

The domestic spot premium dropped to 70 yuan a ton, the lowest since July 16.

SHFE copper stocks edged up 1.1% to 70,116 tons last week, their first weekly increase since June 8, after falling to a more than two-year low.

China’s imports of unwrought copper and copper products fell 11.5% year on year to 425,000 tons in July, while January-July imports declined 6.2% to 2.92 million tons, customs data showed on Friday.

The year-to-date data was the lowest for the period since 2019.

Among other LME metals, aluminium rose 0.15%, zinc added 0.13%, lead gained 0.16% and tin edged up 0.04%, while nickel slipped 0.17%.

On the SHFE, aluminium rose 0.21%, lead gained 0.25% and nickel climbed 0.53%. Zinc fell 1.49% and tin dropped 1.33%.