Feb 19 (LTIT) - Higher prices of copper futures lowered downstream purchases, and drove sellers to lower offers to destock on the morning of Tuesday February 19 in Shanghai.

Offers stood mostly at a discount of 180-50 yuan/mt over the SHFE 1903 contract this morning, compared with a discount of 160-30 yuan/mt on February 18.

Trades started to pick up when sellers lowered offers for standard-quality copper to a discount of 180-170 yuan/mt, from a discount of 150 yuan/mt in early trades. Discounts for high-quality copper also expanded to 80-70 yuan/mt, from 50 yuan/mt during the same period. This attracted some purchases from traders. Discounts of hydro-copper grew to 320 yuan/mt at noon.

On the morning of February 19, the SHFE 1903 contract returned above 49,000 yuan/mt and settled at 49,200 yuan/mt at the end of the morning trading session, up 550 yuan/mt from that time on February 18.

At noon on February 19, high-grade copper traded at 48,980-49,080 yuan/mt and standard-quality copper traded at 48,860-48,980 yuan/mt.