Copper prices remained resilient this week despite deliveries into London Metal Exchange sheds that totaled more than 100,000 tonnes - and do not necessarily reflect changes in supply-demand fundamentals, market participants said.
On Tuesday January 23, more than 36,000 tonnes of the red metal hit LME sheds, mainly Busan warehouses; subsequent deliveries moved copper into Singapore, Rotterdam and New Orleans warehouses. As of Friday January 26, on-warrant stocks had increased by 62% since Monday January 22, to stand at 258,675 tonnes - the highest since October 2016. "We are already used to these occasional, huge deliveries into LME sheds. Last year, there were at least four spikes that we had [of] over 50,000 tonnes of delivery within a few days....