From Bloomberg:
Copper prices fell for the third straight session in New York on signs that demand may ease in China, the world’s biggest user of industrial metals.Copper inventories monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped 45 percent last week, the most since February. In April, new lending fell in China, spurring speculation that the country’s economic rebound will slow. Copper prices have surged 48 percent this year as Chinese imports climbed.
The metal lost “momentum as arriving inventory eases” tight supplies, Alex Heath, the head of industrial-metals trading at RBC Capital Markets in London, said in a report. “The change in sentiment also has much to do with China’s new bank lending easing.”>>>MORE
From MarketWatch
China, the world's biggest consumer of copper, aluminum, and zinc, said Monday it will restrict new aluminum projects for three years and will consolidate base metal production to revitalize the strategically important sector.As a commenter said:The State Council, the country's cabinet, said in a plan published on its Web site that it will seek to set up three to five big metal producers by 2011, with the biggest 10 companies controlling 90% of copper production, 70% of aluminum, 60% of lead, and 60% of zinc.The plan said China's nonferrous metal industry has suffered badly from the global economic downturn. Demand remained weak and prices were falling sharply. The industry also faced problems such as over-capacity and outdated facilities, the plan said.According to the plan, this year China will shut down 300,000 tons of obsolete copper smelting capacity, along with 600,000 tons of lead and 400,000 tons of zinc. By the end of 2010, the country will also shut down 800,000 tons of electrolytic aluminum capacity...MORE
"Not fair, they have a plan.
This is like a chess game between somone who plays 7 moves ahead, and someone who plays one move at a time."
