International copper prices open higher and lower, closing slightly higher


  On Wednesday, the international copper price opened higher and moved lower, and closed slightly higher, but the market transaction volume was still relatively sluggish. Concerns about a slowdown in China's economy still dampened investor buying interest. Although the latest Chinese copper import data remains strong, the continued rise in domestic inventories means that apparent consumption is not very large, and doubts about Chinese demand make it difficult for copper prices to break out of the current fluctuation range.

  At the end of the day, three-month copper futures on the London LME market edged up $25 to $8,455 a tonne; the main May copper contract on the U.S. COMEX market rose 1.50 cents to $3.8455 a pound.

  Some market participants said that in addition to the copper inventory on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which is at a nearly 10-year high, it is expected that by the end of March, China's domestic bonded inventory will rise to the range of 600,000-650,000 tons, close to the historical high reached last year, while 1 The bonded inventory in the month was only 285,000-300,000 tons.

  International copper research group ICSG released a report on Wednesday, saying that the global copper supply gap in 2011 was 358,000 tons, the same as the gap in 2010; during the period, global refined copper consumption increased by 3% over the previous year to 20 million tons, and production also increased by 3% % to 19.63 million tons. The supply gap for refined copper in December 2011 was 41,000 tons, although China's apparent demand reached a record level that month, and weak demand from other major consuming countries made the gap smaller for the month.

  LME copper inventories on the London Stock Exchange continued their downward trend. On Wednesday, the exchange's copper depot fell for the 20th consecutive trading day, and fell further by 2,500 tons to 258,300 tons on the same day, hitting a new low since June 2009. In the past 25 trading days, LME copper inventories have fallen for 24 days.