Copper lower on strong dollar, despite China imports

Copper prices fell Monday after rising to a 13-month high after the US dollar strengthened and even though new numbers showed that China’s imports of copper were up almost 30 percent in September, the fifth highest amount of copper ever shipped into the Asia nation in a month.

December copper fell 2 cents to $3.01 per pound in New York trade, while three-month copper dropped $36 to $6,613 per tonne, but only after reaching as high as $6,732 per tonne earlier on the London Metal Exchange.

One factor driving copper declines was a gain of another 1,775 tonnes in LME-monitored warehouses, to 368,850 tonnes.

Nickel prices were also lower, dropping $300 to $18,650 per tonne, and while lead remained untraded the last bids were down $50 to $2,310 per tonne.

Aluminium, on the other hand, added $26 to $1,972 per tonne after going as high as $2,028 per tonne during the session while zinc was up $42 to $2,315 per tonne and tin gained $110 to $15,255 per tonne in London.

Precious metals prices were lower in New York trade, where December gold was down $13.60 to $1,042.80 per troy ounce, December silver fell 63 cents to $17.10  per troy ounce, January platinum was $23.70 lower to $1,345.80 per tonne and December palladium dropped $6.20 to $333.25 per troy ounce.