Copper falls in broad metals; increasing inventories are in focus
The price of copper fell sharply Thursday, with losses spreading across precious metals as rising inventories, and a stronger U.S. Dollar, raised demand concerns.
The most active copper contract at the 'Shanghai Futures Exchange' closed daytime trading down by 3.76% to 100,980 Yuan ($14,548.96).
The benchmark LME three-month copper fell by 0.92%, to $12.925 per ton.
The copper market has recovered since Tuesday after a two session slump, boosted by China's plans to increase its strategic reserves of copper.
The metal has joined in a wider sell-off across all asset classes including precious metals. Shanghai copper fell as much as 4.24 percent on Thursday, and the London benchmark dropped as much as 1.53 percent.
Silver was the worst-hit metal, falling nearly 17%, before reversing its losses and erasing almost two days of gains. Gold fell below $4,800 per ounce, but recovered later most of its losses.
The decline ?was partly driven by a stronger dollar, which was thrown a lifeline by the nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Chair of the Federal Reserve, making greenback-denominated commodities less affordable for investors using other currencies.
Copper prices are also being pressured by increasing inventories. This has raised concerns about the high prices testing demand for this red metal, widely used in construction.
The exchange's on-warrant stock of copper has reached 155,725 tonnes, the highest since March 2025, after a 12,750-ton inflow from LME Asian warehouses located in Taiwan and South Korea.
Copper inventories in SHFE sheds
Aluminium, zinc, lead, and nickel all fell in price. Tin also plunged by 7.01%.
The LME saw aluminium fall 1.48%. Zinc fell 0.91%. Lead dropped 0.33%. Nickel fell 1.12%. Tin fell 4.71%. $1 = 6.9407 Chinese Yuan Renminbi (Reporting and editing by Harikrishnan Nair, Sonia Cheema and Harikrishnan Nair)
(source: Reuters)
