The most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell to 48,980 yuan ($8,000) a tonne on Thursday, its lowest in nearly seven months. Sentiment is souring as traders, impatient for signs that the industry is ramping up after the Lunar New Year, are facing slowly filling order books, while falling property prices in China have dented the appeal of copper imports for financiers.
But orders may yet pick up as March gets underway for the seasonally strongest second quarter of demand, suggesting prices may not fall too far from here, said Sijin Cheng, analyst at Barclays in Singapore. "We probably need to see a relentless increase in China's bonded stocks or even Chinese exports for prices to really come off. Copper is going to be caught in between the different forces for the time being," she said.