yolowire.com - The price of Copper is headed for its worst weekly loss since 2022 after a closely watched policy meeting in China failed to reassure traders of increased industrial output and metal demand in the nation of 1.4 billion people.
Future prices for copper, a widely used industrial metal, have fallen more than 5% on the London Metal Exchange this past week amid a broad selloff that’s also hurt prices for aluminum, tin and nickel.
Copper prices have steadily fallen from record levels reached in May as concerns grow about demand in China.
Economic data recently showed that China’s growth in this year’s second quarter was the slowest in more than a year.
At the same time, the Third Plenum, a key meeting of China’s ruling Communist Party, provided little evidence that demand will be boosted in the near-term.
Copper inventories worldwide have swelled in recent months, with stockpiles tracked by the London Metal Exchange having more than doubled since mid-May.
Further bad news comes as a 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Chile less than 50 kilometres from the country’s northern copper mining region.
While there haven’t been any reports of damage at the copper mines because of the earthquake, commodities traders are watching developments closely.
Copper is currently trading at $9,360 U.S. a ton on the London Metal Exchange. That’s down nearly 20% from an all-time high of $11,464 U.S. per ton reached on May 20 this year.