copper falls

Extract from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid=afAZIgjmUSNc&refer=commodities

Copper for delivery in three months fell $60, or 0.8 percent, to $7,930 a ton after trading at a two-month high of $8,015 yesterday. Imports of copper and copper products in China, the biggest user of the metal, rose to 1.51 million tons in the first half, 52 percent higher than a year earlier, the Beijing-based customs office said today, citing preliminary data. June's imports gained 23 percent to 212,471 tons.

Chilean Strikes

Codelco, the biggest copper producer, halted work at one of its units in central Chile yesterday after protests by striking contract workers, the second stoppage in the country this week.

The state-owned company stopped production at its Andina division after a worker was hospitalized July 9 by protesters throwing rocks, Santiago-based Codelco said on its Web site. The division accounted for 236,000 tons of copper in 2006, 14 percent of Codelco's output from its fully owned mines. A union at Collahuasi, Chile's third-largest copper mine, also went on strike yesterday to demand improved pay.

Copper stockpiles tracked by the LME dropped 1.7 percent to 100,375 tons, the lowest since July 31.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in London at [email protected]

Last Updated: July 10, 2007 08:12 EDT