Another day of copper price plunge.

In afternoon New York trade on Thursday May copper changed hands at $2.936 a pound, erasing all of yesterday's strong gains.

Earlier in the day the red metal fell as low as $2.913, down more than 2%, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen made upbeat comments about the strength of the US economy.

On Wednesday copper price futures went on wild ride falling to multi-year low of $2.877 by midday only to attract strong buying towards the end of the day to close within sight of the psychologically important $3.00 a pound level.

While the hawkish comments by Yellen indicate expectations of stronger growth in the US thanks to housing starts at a six-year high and continuing strength in manufacturing, growth in the US cannot offset the slowdown in China.

Copper is down more than 13% this year, with most of the losses coming in March after a steady stream of dismal economic numbers out of China – responsible for 47% of total global copper demand – sent prices tumbling.

Given its widespread use in transportation, manufacturing and construction the weakness in China is having a significantly negative impact on underlying copper demand.

At just over 10 million tonnes a year, China consumes more than four times the amount of copper than the US does and three times that of Europe.

Chinese growth is expected to come in below the official target of 7.5% this year, the slowest pace since 1990 as the country's new leaders transform the economy from an investment-led to a consumption driven one.

Chinese authorities are also doing everything they can to throttle back debt-fueled growth – earlier in March, Choari Solar became the first Chinese company in history to default on a corporate bond, sending shivers through Chinese industry and sparking fears of a knock-on effect.

The slowdown in China is also coming at a time of significant production expansion in copper.

Codelco's new 160,000 tonnes-plus Ministro Hales mine in Chile, Glencore's Las Bambas project in Peru it is close to selling to China's Minmetals, expansion at other Codelco properties and at BHP Billiton's Escondida will help global output top 22.2 million tonnes from just over 21 million tonnes in 2013.

Already gargantuan Escondida mine is being bulked up

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LME Aluminium stocks rise by record 210,000 tonnes in one day

Aluminium stocks in London Metal Exchange-listed warehouses leapt by nearly 210,000 tonnes on Wednesday March 19 – the largest single-day stock build in the exchange’s history.

Rotterdam warehouses took all of the day's inflows, which totalled a staggering 217,375 tonnes of aluminium. Market participants said that the most likely source of the metal is JP Morgan, which sold its commodities business to Mercuria in a deal announced on Wednesday. The sale includes ownership of the Henry Bath warehousing company. 

Freeport says Chinese copper demand to grow for over a decade

* China's copper consumption remains robust, says official

* Freeport still in talks with Indonesian government over dispute

China's copper consumption will grow for "more than a decade" as demand from the world's top user remains robust despite fears of an economic slowdown, a Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc executive said on Wednesday.

 

Worries over slower growth in China, which accounts for 40 percent of global copper consumption, helped send prices of the industrial metal to a 44-month low last week, down 12 percent this year.

 

Still, the long-term outlook remained solid, said Freeport's Javier Targhetta, senior vice president for marketing and sales.

 

"We are seeing still robust consumption in China. Of course there can be hiccups here and there," Targhetta told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference. "I think Chinese consumption of copper will keep growing for more than a decade."

 

He expected China's import volumes to remain brisk even if its gross domestic product expansion slows to 3-4 percent, while a recovery in the U.S. and European economies should also copper consumption.

 

"Copper is increasingly needed both in mature and emerging economies," he said.

 

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was trading at $6,470 a tonne on Wednesday, regaining some ground after hitting $6,376.25 last week, its lowest since July 2010.

 

Freeport, which operates the world's fifth largest copper mine in Indonesia, halted copper concentrate exports in mid-January over a dispute with the Indonesian government on a new tax.

 

"We are cooperating with the Indonesian government looking for a mutually beneficial outcome of the current situation. We hope to have it resolved soon," Targhetta said.

 

Freeport and fellow U.S. miner Newmont Mining Corp have refused to pay an escalating export tax introduced on Jan. 12 as part of package of new mining rules aimed at forcing miners to build smelters and process raw materials in Indonesia.

 

Targhetta said the company's Grasberg mine is producing at half of its capacity, but has not cut any jobs so far.

 

A union official said earlier this month that production at Freeport Indonesia was cut by around 60 percent. Freeport in February said it may need to declare force majeure on copper concentrate sales at its Grasberg mine.

Peru Posts Strong Increase in January Copper, Lead, Tin Production

Peru posted a strong increase in copper production in January on higher output from the country's biggest mines, while gold production continued to decline, the government said Friday.

The Mines and Energy Ministry said that Peru produced 111,855 tons of Copper in January, up 19.88% from the same month last year. The increase was due to higher production at Peru's largest copper mines, including those operated by Compania Minera Antamina SA and Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde SAA.

• Peru is the world's third biggest producer of copper, which is also the country's top export earner.

The ministry said that Gold production declined 5.8% in January to 11.089 kilograms due to lower output from Minera Yanacocha, which is majority owned by Newmont Mining Corp., and operations owned by Barrick Gold.

Peru is a major global producer of gold, which is the country's second biggest export product.

Silver production increased 1.91% in January to 274,725 kilograms, while Zinc output fell 9.54% to 100,885 tons, the government said.

Lead production climbed 8.01% to 21,995 tons, and Tin production rose 26.73% to 2,015 tons. Molybdenum production rose to 1,437 tons, and iron output increased to 644,218 tons.

Nickel Rises to 11-Month High on China Ore Stockpiles

Nickel rose to the highest level in 11 months as raw ore stockpiles in China, which produces a quarter of global production, are falling amid an Indonesian export ban and on speculation Russian supply will be disrupted.

The metal for delivery in three months climbed as much as 0.7 percent to $16,310 a metric ton, the highest intraday level since April 10, and traded at $16,231 at 10:20 a.m. in Hong Kong. Nickel has risen 17 percent this year.

Nickel entered a bull market yesterday on speculation Russian supplies will be disrupted at a time when some shipments are already banned in Indonesia. The U.S. and the European Union slapped sanctions on Russia after a disputed vote in Crimea paved the way for President Vladimir Putin to annex the region from Ukraine. Chinese nickel pig iron producers began stockpiling raw ore from Indonesia in the run-up to the ban, which started on Jan. 12.

“People are going after the available supply and there’s a sense that if something doesn’t happen very soon, you really would have a situation where you would run out of the stockpiles in a few months,” Sijin Cheng, a commodities analyst at Barclays Plc, said by phone from Singapore.

China’s inventory at factory warehouses and ports is enough to sustain output at last year’s pace until July, according to a Bloomberg survey in January. Small and medium sized plants are expected to run out of material stocks over March and April, according to the survey. China’s imports of ore from Indonesia rose by 21 percent in January from a month earlier, according to customs.