Copper eased ahead of a US rate statement on Wednesday and as markets focused on Greece, while signs of stronger demand growth from top consumer China helped underpin prices. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange ended at $9,020 a tonne from $9,080 at Tuesday's close.
The metal used in power and construction hit a one-week low at $8,900 on Monday and remains more than 10 percent below record highs of $10,190 a tonne hit in February. "The Greek vote last night was only stage one; it's still a long way to go to passing the austerity measures and then implementing them," said analyst Stephen Briggs of BNP Paribas.
The euro earlier slipped on lingering anxiety over Europe's debt crisis, but later reversed losses to hit a session high against the dollar ahead of the end of the Fed meeting. Eurozone consumer confidence edged marginally lower in June against May, data showed, underlining economists' expectations that economic growth in the second quarter will have slowed from the first.
An LME floor trader said copper could potentially target the $9,150 level. "There has been plenty of opportunity for copper to sell off but the closes have been fairly solid.." The fall in monthly Chinese copper imports is a result of drawdowns from stockpiles as high as 1.2 million tonnes that the world's top copper consumer has been building since the end of 2008, said Briggs of BNP Paribas. "Apparent consumption and local production points to Chinese demand actually falling in the first few months of the year, is simply not credible for an economy growing at 9 percent," he said. BNP Paribas expects copper prices to hit a new high of at least $11,000 a tonne in late 2011 or early 2012.
The refined copper market was in an 18,000 tonnes surplus in March, narrowing the deficit for the first quarter to 33,000 tonnes, the International Copper Study Group said. Meanwhile the World Bureau of Metals Statistics said the global copper market saw a surplus of 116,900 tonnes in the January to April 2011 period compared with a surplus of 40,000 tonnes for the whole of last year.
Both lead and zinc hit one-week highs. In lead, cancelled warrants - metal tagged for removal from LME warehouses - jumped 21,775 tonnes in Singapore. Traders and analysts said that a crackdown on lead smelters in China may be fanning demand for high grade material. However, there was also talk the shipment may simply be moving warehouse.
Lead ended at $2,544 a tonne from $2,460. Cancelled zinc warrants climbed by 18,075 tonnes in Malaysia's Johor. A LME floor trader said the material was cancelled from Metro warehouses. Zinc ended at $2,253.5 a tonne from $2,212. Nickel ended at $22,150 a tonne from $21,900 a tonne, aluminium ended at $2,549 a tonne from $2,541 and tin closed at $25,345 a tonne from $25,450.