Spot Copper Price Movement (2014-4-15)

SHANGHAI, Apr. 15 (SMM) – In the Shanghai physical market, copper was offered Tuesday at discounts of RMB 150-300/mt over SHFE current-month copper contract prices. Traded prices were RMB 47,500-47,750/mt for standard-quality copper and RMB 47,600-47,880/mt for high-quality copper. Although SHFE copper prices gradually fell back, the price gap between SHFE 1404 and 1405 copper contracts still hovered at a high of RMB 800/mt. This, combined with the improved SHFE/LME arbitrage ratio, drew inflows of imported copper, which aggravated oversupply of physical copper in the market. Consequently, physical copper was quoted at discounts, and the discounts later expanded. After the price gap between SHFE 1404 and 1405 copper contracts narrowed to around RMB 600/mt, some speculators entered the market to purchase goods on a bullish sentiment towards physical premiums after the delivery date.