Metalnewsnet 18 Mar:

LME copper finished lower on Thursday (March 18), pressured by a firmer dollar and growing concerns that further liquidity tightening in China could slow global demand. Shanghai copper futures, however, closed tad higher in the morning session today (March 19). From insiders, many they forecast local copper scrap supplies will be seen tight in April and May. On the one hand, due to strong LME prices, many importers at home already cut sharply their overseas orders for copper scrap recent days.

On the other, some traders also prefer making purchases in local markets now on the concerns about lower risk and price advantage. And those holders? Many they stick persistently to their bidding prices at present. To begin with, the fundamentals are improving as the market is moving towards the peak period for sales. Demand gets improved, so will the price. Secondly, the market supplies are getting tight due to weak copper at home. “Copper is still expected to trend up in the early second quarter-- traditionally the strongest for metals demand. You see, global economies are on the mend…”, a local copper trader said.

In other words, the consumers (copper scrap) will have to raise their purchasing prices to win the goods. It is also learnt that more copper producers from other provinces are seen in local copper scrap market recent days. That’s because copper prices between Guangdong and other provinces are narrowing.

Editor: KylinTse