Metals prices bow to pressure

THE THREEMONTH lead price on the London Metal Exchange was slightly firmer last Friday while the rest of the complex was down by an average of 0.6 percent. Zinc led the decline with a 1.2 percent fall, while copper was off by 0.8 percent at $6,217 per tonne.

THE THREEMON TH lead price on the London Metal Exchange was slightly firmer last Friday while the rest of the complex was down by an average of 0.6 percent. Zinc led the decline with a 1.2 percent fall, while copper was off by 0.8 percent at $6,217 per tonne.

Volume has been high with 11,796 lots traded, the bulk of which has been in nickel where 6,902 lots have traded. The LME three-month nickel price was down by 1.1 percent at $10,835 per tonne, having earlier set a fresh low for the year at $10,750 per tonne.

There was similar weakness in the precious metals with the complex down across the board by an average of 0.5 percent. The spot gold price was down by 0.3 percent at $1,223.89 per ounce.

In China, the January contract prices for base metals were for the most part weaker, the exceptions being aluminium and lead, the latter of which was up by 1 percent.

The rest were down between 0.1 percent for copper, which was at 49,460 yuan ($7,133) per tonne, and 2.9 percent for nickel.

Tin was also down heavily, off by 2.1 percent, while zinc was down by around 1 percent.

Spot copper prices in Changjiang were up by 0.5 percent at 49,710-49,900 yuan per tonne, the fact that spot prices are higher than futures prices suggests the weakness came later in the day.

The LME and Shanghai copper arbitrage ratio was firmer at 7.97 on Friday after 7.95 a day earlier.

In other metals in China, the January iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down by 4.6 percent at 497 yuan per tonne. On the SHFE, the January steel rebar contract was also down by 2.6 percent.

The underlying trend in the base metals, with the exception of nickel, remains the same with prices oscillating