Price trend

As shown in the above figure, copper prices had slightly decreased this week. As of this weekend, the spot copper quotation was 73,270 RMB/ton, a decrease of 1.25% from 74,196.67 RMB/ton at the beginning of the week and a year-on-year increase of 6.29%.

According to the weekly chart of SunSirs, copper prices have fallen for 9 weeks and risen for 3 weeks in the past three months, with a slight decline this week.

LME copper inventory

According to data released by the London Metal Exchange (LME), LME copper inventory slightly decreased, with 271,350 tons of LME copper inventory as of the weekend, down 0.02% from the beginning of the week.

Analysis review

Macroscopically, data released by the US Department of Labor on Thursday evening showed that the number of initial jobless claims in the US fell to an 8-month low last week, and the number of renewed jobless claims also dropped to a 3-month low of 1.844 million. This data reflected the relatively small scale of layoffs in the US labor market, demonstrating surprising resilience. As a result, the US dollar exchange rate has significantly strengthened to a new two-year high, putting significant pressure on industrial metals as a whole, as the strengthening of the US dollar means that metals denominated in US dollars were more expensive for buyers holding other currencies.

Supply side: The tight situation on the raw material side had not changed, with copper concentrate processing fees remaining low and crude copper processing fees decreasing. The completion of maintenance in domestic smelters and the demand for production recovery have brought incremental growth to electrolytic copper.

On the demand side: The Chinese New Year holiday was approaching in the domestic market, gradually entering the off-season of consumption, and downstream consumption was gradually weakening. The seasonal off-season has led to a buildup of inventory in the domestic market.

Market outlook

In summary, there was a lack of macro news in overseas markets, and although favorable domestic policies have curbed the decline in copper prices, weak post holiday consumption expectations have put pressure on copper prices. Therefore, copper prices still face downward pressure in the short term.

If you have any enquiries or purchasing needs, please feel free to contact SunSirs with support@sunsirs.com.