By Millie Munshi Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Copper prices fell for the seventh time in eight sessions on signs that the global recession is deepening, even as governments act to stimulate economic growth. U.K. housing sales in October declined to the lowest in three decades. U.S. hiring plans in the first quarter held near a five-year low, a private survey showed. Yesterday, copper surged 9.1 percent, the most in five weeks, after President- elect Barack Obama pledged to boost the U.S. economy with the biggest package of public-works spending since the 1950s. “It is clear that rescue packages, stimulus and interest- rate cuts will be slow to work their support through the system, and short-term indicators will continue to be poor,” Alex Heath, the head of industrial metals at RBC Capital Markets in London, said in a report. Copper is “crumbling under the weight of the world’s economic problems.” Copper futures for March delivery dropped 5.45 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $1.4435 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The metal has tumbled 53 percent this year. Slumps in manufacturing and homebuilding have reduced demand for copper, used in pipes and wires. Inventories monitored by the London Metal Exchange have more than doubled since June 30 as growth slowed in the U.S., Europe and China, the world’s biggest user of the metal. “Until the economy can show it’s ready to rebound on a consistent basis, copper will trade at lower levels,” said Donald Selkin, the chief market strategist at National Securities Corp. in New York. The metal may drop to $1.35 “before finding support,” he said. Processing Fees Smelters in China asked BHP Billiton Ltd. and other mining companies to pay 74 percent more next year to process copper ore, the raw material from mines, two industry officials involved with the negotiations said. The costs to refine metal typically rise as supplies exceed demand. An increase would be the first since 2006. “Things aren’t great here,” said Mark Lewon, a vice president for operations at Utah Metal Works Inc., which processes more than 12,000 tons of metal, including copper, a year. “We’ve seen a lot of customers who have no demand at all. The Chinese are largely out of the market.” Obama’s spending plan probably won’t have an immediate impact on metal demand, Lewon said in a telephone interview from Salt Lake City. “There may be more shoes to drop first,” he said. “You have to wait and see where more typical demand goes before you can really understand what this will mean for the prices.” Chile’s state-owned Codelo, the world’s largest copper producer, said today it is moving ahead with expansion at a new mine and may speed up development of a second project, citing long-term prospects for the metal. On the LME, copper for delivery in three months declined $115, or 3.5 percent, to $3,200 a metric ton ($1.45 a pound). The price has tumbled 64 percent from a record $8,940 on July 2. To contact the reporter on this story: Millie Munshi in New York at mmunshi@bloomberg.net.

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