By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell for a seventh day in London, its longest losing streak in 10 years, on concern that producers haven’t cut output enough to counter demand weakness in China and the U.S., the largest consumers of industrial metals. Copper usage in China, the world’s biggest buyer, declined 5.5 percent in October from a year earlier, Standard Chartered Plc said in a report yesterday. Miners have announced about 666,000 metric tons of copper production cuts this year, according to a Dec. 3 Credit Suisse report. That represents 3.5 percent of 2008 output, based on estimates from the International Copper Study Group. “There is more pain to come for copper,” Robin Bhar, an analyst at Calyon in London, said by phone today. “Other metals are close to bottom because producers cut output, but we haven’t seen as many cuts in copper.” Copper for delivery in three months lost $140, or 4.3 percent, to $3,130 a ton as of 11:14 a.m. local time. The contract has lost 14 percent this week, the largest drop since October. The LME index of six industrial metals has slumped 49 percent this year, following last year’s 8.3 percent drop. Price plunges forced Cia. Vale do Rio Doce and Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world’s second-largest nickel and copper producers respectively, to reduce output and lower spending in new mine developments. More Needed Nickel mine output cuts announced since August have totaled 110,000 tons, or 7.5 percent of this year’s production, the largest among all LME metals, Barclays Capital said in a report yesterday. “In view of the size of surplus and deteriorating demand, we believe further production cuts will be needed,” London-based analyst Gayle Berry wrote in the report. Nickel, the only gainer today, rose $30 to $9,280 a ton, cropping this year’s loss to 65 percent. LME-monitored copper stockpiles added 4,325 tons, or 1.5 percent, to 297,300 tons, the exchange said in a daily report, the highest since Feb. 23, 2004. Including those monitored by exchanges in New York and Shanghai, they totaled 332,523 tons, or 6.5 days of global consumption, according to Bloomberg calculations. Last year’s average was 4.9 days. U.S. employers probably cut 333,000 jobs in November, the fastest pace in a quarter-century, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The jobless rate may have jumped to 6.8 percent, the highest level since 1993. The Labor Department’s report is due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. The fundamentals of commodities are “unimpaired” and prices will rebound when a lack of new supply leads to shortages, said Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings. “Commodities will be the place to be if and when we come out of” the economic decline, Rogers said yesterday in an interview from Miami. “The only thing where fundamentals are unimpaired are commodities.” Among other LME-traded metals, lead lost $21 to $957 a ton and zinc slipped $19 to $1,126 a ton. Aluminum dropped $48 to $1,538 a ton and tin fell $175 to $11,675 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in London at cchanjaroen@bloomberg.net

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