por admin » Jue Jun 10, 2010 8:27 am
China importo menos cobre en Mayo, sus importaciones fueron de 396,712 tons. Eso es un 9.1% menos que en Abril y 6.1% menos que el mismo mes el anio pasado.
El cobre ha bajado 21% este anio.
Copper May Drop in New York Following Slide in Chinese Imports
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A By Anna Stablum
June 10 (Bloomberg) -- Copper may fall in New York and London for the first time in three days on concern about the outlook for demand after China, the world’s biggest consumer, imported less metal.
Inbound shipments of copper and products were 396,712 metric tons in May, the customs office said. That was down 9.1 percent from April and a 6.1 percent drop from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations. Metal delivered in May probably was booked about six weeks earlier, when prices were higher than now, Citigroup Inc. analyst David Thurtell said.
“Considering where prices were when most of this metal was purchased, they are very strong,” he said of the import figures by phone from London today.
Copper for July delivery gained 0.2 cent, or 0.1 percent, to $2.852 a pound at 8:28 a.m. on the Comex in New York. The most-active contract rebounded from a decline of as much as 1.7 percent. Copper for delivery in three months fell 0.1 percent to $6,332 a ton on the London Metal Exchange.
LME copper has slid 21 percent from this year’s intraday high of $8,043.75 a ton on April 12, pulled down by concern about steps taken by China to restrain its economy and the potential spread in the euro zone of Greece’s fiscal crisis. Prices retreated in seven of the last eight weeks. The declines have spurred Chinese demand, according to Thurtell.
‘Strong Buyers’
“We are hearing they have been strong buyers in recent days,” he said.
China imported 436,350 tons of copper and products in April and 422,670 tons in May 2009. In the first five months of this year, inbound shipments rose 8.2 percent from a year earlier to 1.9 million tons. While imports “remain stubbornly high,” they may weaken in coming months, according to Daniel Major, an analyst at RBS Global Banking & Markets in London.
“There is potential for a further decline in Chinese copper imports over the summer months,” he said today by e- mail. “At best, increasing Chinese copper imports are unlikely to provide the stimulus for a significant recovery in the copper price in coming months.”
Imports of scrap copper into China were 330,000 tons in May, down from 371,705 tons in April. Inbound shipments were 328,265 tons a year earlier. Scrap imports from January to May gained 15 percent to 1.68 million tons.
Inventories of copper tracked by the LME slipped for a 17th day today to 466,400 tons, the lowest level since Dec. 11. Bookings to remove metal from warehouses fell 4.2 percent to 23,950 tons.
Aluminum for three-month delivery on the LME rose 0.7 percent to $1,942 a ton. Buyers of the lightweight metal in Japan, Asia’s largest importer, won a reduction in the fee charged by producers for a second quarter as Asian supplies increased on shipments from China and the Middle East.
Nickel declined 0.5 percent to $19,175 a ton and zinc fell 1.5 percent to $1,727 a ton. Lead slipped 0.1 percent to $1,678 a ton and tin rose 1.4 percent to $16,550 a ton.