LONDON: Copper edged higher on Friday as the euro steadied, but prices were still on track for their biggest monthly loss since March on worries that rising tensions in Ukraine could set back global growth and hit metals demand.
International news has been dominating metals trade during a summer lull, which has been exacerbated by tougher credit conditions in China as banks have tightened risk controls since a suspected financing fraud in China's Qingdao port in May.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange closed at $6,982 a tonne, having dropped by more than a percent in the previous session. It closed at $6,934 per tonne on Thursday.
Analysts have pointed to prospects for further weakness ahead as swelling mine supply is expected to eclipse a modest demand revival into the end of the year.
In Europe the euro edged up versus the dollar on Friday after euro zone inflation was in line with expectations, cooling speculation that the European Central Bank would ease monetary policy as early as next week.
A weaker dollar makes dollar-priced metals cheaper for non-US and European investors.
Still, investors were for the most part nervous about rising tensions in the Ukraine crisis. "Increasingly markets are looking at weaker economic conditions in Europe and tensions in the Ukraine as price drivers.
Typically the outlook on Chinese demand has led the market as it accounts for 45 percent of global consumption, but the balance appears to be shifting," ANZ said in a note.
Copper lost around 2 percent in August, its first drop in four months and its biggest monthly loss since March.
Risk appetite in general suffered after Ukraine's president said Russian troops had entered his country in support of pro-Moscow rebels who captured a major coastal town, escalating a five-month-old separatist conflict. Sanctions have undermined confidence in the recovery of the European Union, fanning worries over growth.
US DEMAND, CHILEAN SUPPLY:
In the United States, data out on Thursday showed the economy rebounded more strongly than initially reported for the second quarter, with a bigger chunk of the growth driven by domestic demand in a bright sign for the future.
On the downside for copper, however, world No. 1 copper producer Chile was seen boosting its output to a record 6.3 million tonnes in 2015, despite an economic slowdown, the SONAMI mining association said late on Thursday.
That would be an increase from around an estimated 6 million tonnes this year.In industry news, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said it had suffered under $200 million in bad loans as a result of a suspected fraud in China's Qingdao port.
The suspected metals financing fraud in Qingdao has weakened financing-related import demand, said analyst Li Chunlan of consultancy CRU in Beijing, which is keeping China's domestic market tight. "I don't see a chance for imports to rebound strongly in August," he said.
Among other metals, aluminium climbed to the highest since February 2013 at $2,119.50 a tonne, supported by a shortfall in immediate supply as global demand increased, led by the auto sector. It closed at $2,095 a tonne from $2,080 on Thursday.
Reflecting supply-side stress that should encourage traders to deliver metal into exchange warehouses, cash aluminium traded at a $3.25 premium against the benchmark contract on Thursday, the highest since late 2012.
The spread slipped to $2.50 a tone on Friday. Zinc closed at $2,359 a tonne from a last bid of $2,341 on Thursday, while lead was at $2,241 a tonne from $2,248, tin at $21,875 a tonne from $21,800, and nickel at $18,800 a tonne from $18,650.
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