Shanghai copper inventories surge amid growing speculation
TOKYO - Record Shanghai copper inventories fed by speculative imports are obscuring the level of true demand in China, making the metal less reliable as an economic indicator.
Copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange ended Friday at 37,620 yuan ($5,774) per ton, down slightly from Thursday and 5% below a recent high hit in early March. Data released after trading showed on-warrant copper inventories at 177,000 tons, marking an 11th straight weekly increase. That level is double inventories during March 2015.
"Arbitrage trading betting on a weakening of the yuan" is responsible for ballooning copper inventories, said Takayuki Honma of Sumitomo Corp. Global Research.
Investors predicting that the yuan will lose value are buying Shanghai copper in anticipation that yuan-denominated prices will rise. That demand has at times boosted the metal's Shanghai price above that on the London Metal Exchange. Shanghai copper traded at the equivalent of around $4,570 per ton in late January, compared with $4,440 in London. Copper traders began procuring the metal from warehouses in London and exporting it to China, keeping it in Shanghai for delivery, Barclays reports.
LME inventories have thus fallen 40% since the start of the year. China's copper imports, meanwhile, surged more than 20% on the year to 860,000 tons in January and February. That metal has not been consumed, instead becoming part of swelling inventories..
Link: http://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Commodities/Shanghai-copper-inventories-surge-amid-growing-speculation
Quelle: stockcharts.com
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