China’s copper appetite cleans out LME warehouses 4 minutes ago (Reuters) LONDON - China’s voracious appetite for copper has cleaned out warehouses in Asia and Europe and next on the list are those in the United States, traders and analysts said on Thursday. But seasonally weak demand over the next few weeks and a notion copper prices are too high for Chinese buyers could mean some short term investors and traders have missed a 50 percent price rise since the end of last year. “We think prices are looking toppy, this is probably the last leg of a rally based on Chinese buying—for stockpiling or for real consumption,” a London-based trader said. “Some have sold material to China that they may not be able to deliver from Europe or Asia ... They’ll have to get the stuff from U.S. locations because everywhere else is nearly empty.” China is the world’s largest copper consumer accounting for about 30 percent of global demand estimated at about 17.5 million tonnes this year. Copper is used extensively in power and construction. Imports of unworought copper and semi finished copper products in April are expected to remain at March’s record high or rise in the world’s third largest economy. The visibility of Chinese imports has been a major trigger for a surge in copper prices and physical premiums. Benchmark copper MCU3 on the London Metal Exchange has risen to around $4,800 a tonne from near $3,200 at the end of last year and premiums for physical material in Asia and Europe have also moved higher alongside future contracts. The premium for copper on Europe’s physical market against LME cash contracts MCU0 is up at about about $90 a tonne from from around $60 a tonne and about $20 a tonne at the start of the year when markets were in the throes of despair. BASEU1 “Even in Europe, buying has been so brisk that it’s forcing up premiums. Now they are having to look further afield for the metal,” said Gayle Berry, analyst at Barclays Capital Further afield is an LME warehouse in New Orleans, which has seen cancelled warrants—material tagged for delivery—rise to 18,750 tonnes from 500 tonnes at the end of March. However, some analysts say that material could be destined for warehouses linked to the New York Mercantile Exchange’s COMEX division as copper prices HGN9 on COMEX are around $4,830 a tonne compared with $4,771 on the LME. Copper stocks in LME warehouses have tumbled about 40 percent since February 24 to below 400,000 tonnes. Latest data shows overall cancelled warrants stand at at 74,875 tonnes—about 19 percent of total stocks.