Copper futures tumbled the exchange- imposed 5 percent daily limit in Shanghai, tracking overnight losses in London, as the slumping global economy slashed demand for raw materials. Inventories tallied by the London Metal Exchange climbed 1.6 percent to 369,500 metric tons of copper, the most in almost five years. China, the world’s largest metal user, discarded a plan to purchase copper to support domestic smelters because producers are still profitable and inventories aren’t high. “Just because the state isn’t buying from domestic smelters, doesn’t mean they’re not going to make overseas purchases,” Wang Zhouyi, an analyst at China International Futures (Shanghai) Co., said today. Copper for April delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most active contract, declined 1,410 yuan from the previous settlement price to 26,790 yuan ($3,919) a metric ton. London Metal Exchange copper was up 0.8 percent at $3,270 a ton at 11:59 a.m. Singapore, after losing 4.6 percent yesterday. “We saw some arbitrage trade, buying London and selling Shanghai, in the past few days but that has tapered off as the gap has widened,” said Wang. “We’ll only know the extent of the buying when the import numbers come in the next few months.” China is expected to report preliminary trade data today. Among other LME-traded metals, zinc added 0.7 percent to $1,260 a ton, and aluminum was almost unchanged at $1,520. Lead dropped 1.7 percent to $1,150 a ton, tin slid 2.6 percent to $11,300, and nickel was little changed at $10,700 as of 12:01 p.m. in Singapore.

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