
London copper prices edged down on Friday as tepid China data raised concerns of weak demand for the metal, while mixed signals from the U.S.-China trade scene sparked worries over the prospects of sealing a deal. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.3% at $5,959 a tonne, as of 0818 GMT, after hitting its highest in more than three months on Thursday.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) closed up 0.2% to 47,340 yuan ($6,780.58) a tonne, having eased from stronger gains earlier in the Asian trading hours.
Beijing and Washington have agreed to roll back tariffs on each others’ goods if a “phase one” trade deal is completed, officials from both sides said on Thursday.
However, the excitement soon subsided after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said there was no agreement to remove any of the existing tariffs as a condition of a phase one deal.
“While the United States and China have announced that they are on the cusp of signing a ‘phase one’ trade deal, structural disagreements are likely to persist,” Fitch Solutions said in a report.
“This will not only undercut scope for a ‘phase two’ agreement, but also increase the risk of a re-acceleration of trade tensions in the coming quarters,” they added.
Concerns of a drop in copper demand also weighed on prices, after top consumer China reported weak imports of the metal. “The market is not good,” said CRU analyst He Tianyu, adding that demand for copper from China this year had been increasing but at a slower rate than in 2018, due to weak consumption in the automotive and air conditioning sectors. FUNDAMENTALS
* CHINA IMPORTS: China’s copper imports fell 3.1% in October from the previous month, customs data showed, as a cooling manufacturing sector in the country kept demand subdued, while aluminium exports slipped to an eight-month low.
* CODELCO COPPER: Chile’s Codelco, the world’s top copper producer, boosted output by 7.5% in September to 145,300 tonnes, Chilean copper commission Cochilco said on Thursday, though its total production for the year continued to lag.
* INDONESIA NICKEL: Indonesia has allowed some nickel ore exporters to resume shipments following a temporary halt to investigate reports of violations, a senior official said.
* SHANGHAI STOCKS: ShFE nickel stocks SNI-TOTAL-W climbed 12% from a week earlier to 30,831 tonnes, their highest since the week ended June 1, 2018, while lead stocks PB-STX-SGG jumped 34.7% in the same period to a 10-week high.
* ALUMINIUM: Shanghai aluminium prices climbed as high as 14,120 yuan a tonne, a level unseen since Sept. 25, as stocks in the warehouses tracked by ShFE AL-SGH-STX were at their lowest since March 2017 at 278,736 tonnes.
* OTHER PRICES: LME nickel rose 0.1% to $16,215 a tonne and lead fell 0.9% to $2,093.50 a tonne. ShFE nickel decreased 0.4% to 130,570 yuan a tonne while lead eased 0.2% to 16,100 yuan a tonne.