London, Jan. 21, reported that copper prices fell on Monday as data showed that China’s economic growth had cooled and activity was expected to slow before the Spring Festival holidays, heightening market concerns about China, the world’s major consumer market demand.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) copper index closed down 1.2% at $5,981 a tonne. Last week, copper hit a three-week high of $6,077 a tonne.
Vivienne Lloyd, an analyst at Macquarie, said, “Before and during the Spring Festival holidays, everything came to a standstill, which weakened the market.”
“The damage to copper prices caused by the trade war has been assimilated, so any form of reconciliation is good news.”
China’s economy cooled in the fourth quarter, frustrated by weak domestic demand and US tariff pressure, lowering its annual growth rate to 6.6% in 2018, the lowest level in nearly 30 years.
The Spring Festival holidays begin on February 4 and end on August 8, but many factories close one week before the Spring Festival.
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Concerns about the recent tin supply in the LME market have led to a substantial premium of more than $100 per ton on spot tin over three-month tin.
LME approved a tin inventory of 1,090 tons, about a third of last December’s level. Behind the market tension are large holdings of tin warrants and spot contracts.
Three-month tin closed up 0.2% at $20,650 a tonne, close to the seven-month high of $20,770 hit last week.
Aluminum fell 1.0% to $1,852 a tonne.
Zinc rose 0.3% to $2,588.
Lead prices closed unchanged, but ended up 0.7% higher at $2,012.
Nickel fell 0.2% to $11,800 a ton.
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