Futures Market News
Copper falls as Chinese demand dwindles
Mar 20, 2012 10:47 AM
The price of copper fell on Tuesday, as the U.S. dollar strengthened and the commodity markets retreated following the news of a possible drop in the demand for resources by China, Reuters reports.
According to the news outlet, BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, raised concerns about the possible slowdown in iron ore demand from China, currently the largest consumer of metals.
Bloomberg News reports that three-month copper was down 0.6 percent to $8,520 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange. Analysts noted that the drop had more to do with inventories.
"Domestic demand isn’t particularly bad, but the inventory level is too high," Wang Ning, an analyst at Xiangyu Futures Co., told the news outlet from Shanghai.
Copper inventories at bonded warehouses in Shanghai rose to 530,000 tons last week, according to median estimates from traders and analysts that were surveyed by Bloomberg. This is much higher than the numbers from the fourth quarter in 2011, which totaled 200,000 tons and highlight the current volatility in the markets.
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