Copper prices dipped on Monday in tepid trade due to a holiday in top consumer China, and suppressed by fears of measures that the Chinese authorities could take to curb commodity prices.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 fell 0.4% to $9,967 a tonne by 0739 GMT. Aluminium CMAL3 rose 0.5% to $2,477 a tonne and nickel CMNI3 increased 0.7% to $18,350 a tonne, while tin CMSN3 fell 0.5% to $31,400 a tonne.

The Shanghai Futures Exchange is closed for a holiday.

China plans to release state reserves of nonferrous metals copper, aluminium and zinc in a programme set to last until the end of 2021, data provider Shanghai Metal Exchange Market and Chinese analysts said.

The move came as China’s state planner last week renewed its pledge to step up monitoring of commodity prices, as domestic producer inflation hit its highest in more than 12 years.

LME copper has risen 28% so far this year and hit a record high last month.

“Beijing as we know has made it very clear that driving up metals prices with speculative activity is unacceptable. This message seems to have hit home as can be seen in the low turnover figures,” said Malcolm Freeman, director of UK brokerage Kingdom Futures.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Yangshan copper premium SMM-CUYP-CN fell to $22 a tonne, its lowest since 2016, indicating weak demand for imported metal into China.

* Copper inventories in warehouses tracked by ShFE CU-STX-SGH fell for the fourth straight week on Friday to 180,967 tonnes, the lowest level since March 12.

* ShFE tin stockpiles SN-STX-SGH fell to their lowest since November 2020 at 4,563 tonnes, while lead inventories in ShFE warehouses PB-STX-SGH leaped to 118,885 tonnes, their highest since June 2013.

* ShFE nickel inventories NI-STX-SGH dropped to a record low of 7,471 tonnes.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Uttaresh.V and Shailesh Kuber)