July 22 (LTIT) –Spot copper traded weakly on the morning of Monday July 22 in Shanghai as volatile futures prices sidelined downstream consumers, even though sellers expanded discounts.

Keen to clear inventories, sellers lowered offers to a discount of 20 yuan/mt against the front-month SHFE August contract, for standard-quality copper, and to a premium of 30 yuan/mt for high-grade copper, compared with a premium up to 60 yuan/mt in early trades. Discounts of hydro-copper grew to 60-40 yuan/mt at noon.

Trades failed to pick up as the cut in offers did not come as much as expectations of downstream buyers.

On Monday July 22, the SHFE August contract traded rangebound after declines on last Friday night, and ended the morning trading session at 47,610 yuan/mt, up 110 yuan/mt from that time on Friday July 19.

At noon on Monday July 22, high-grade copper traded at 47,580-47,680 yuan/mt and standard-quality copper traded at 47,540-47,630 yuan/mt.