By Li Xiaowei Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell for a second day in London, extending a decline from a one-week high, as climbing stockpiles added to evidence that a global economic slowdown is reducing demand for industrial metals. Inventories monitored by the London Metal Exchange rose to 287,225 metric tons yesterday, the highest since February 2004. Stockpiles have advanced 45 percent this year while the copper price is down by the same percentage, heading for the first annual drop since 2001. “Investors seem to be bent on pushing copper prices beneath the marginal cost of production, expecting that demand will further deteriorate in the coming months,” Chen Yonglin, an analyst at Citic Futures Co., said from Shanghai. The marginal cost of production is estimated at around $3,500 a ton, he said. Copper for three-month delivery fell as much as 1.3 percent to $3,648 a ton on the London Metal Exchange and traded at $3,660 at 10:07 a.m. in Shanghai. It jumped to as high as $3,815 on Nov. 24 on the U.S. government rescue of Citigroup Inc. February-delivery copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange traded up 0.4 percent at 27,840 yuan ($4,078) a ton at 10:09 a.m. local time. Open interest on the Shanghai exchange surged to more than 260,000 contracts today, from 80,000 in October as an “increasing divergence of opinion” on the direction of prices increased fund inflows, Chen said. Among other LME-traded metals, aluminum was unchanged at $1,810 a ton and zinc fell 2.1 percent to $1,224. Nickel, tin and lead had not traded as of 10:13 a.m. in Shanghai. To contact the reporter for this story: Li Xiaowei in Shanghai at xli12@bloomberg.net

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