By Anna Stablum Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Copper rose in New York and London as the dollar weakened and the Group of 20 nations agreed to maintain stimulus measures, spurring demand for commodities and buoying speculation that consumption will strengthen. The Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback’s performance, fell as much as 1.1 percent to a two-week low. A weaker dollar makes commodities priced in the currency cheaper for users of other monies. Continued stimulus efforts by governments should help pull economies out of the steepest global slump since World War II. “Consumption is running reasonably well, we still have the weak dollar, and we still have got the investment community coming into commodities,” Steve Hardcastle, an analyst at Sucden Financial Ltd. in London, said by phone. December-delivery copper gained 3.15 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $2.984 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division at 8:27 a.m. local time, advancing for the first time in three trading sessions. Copper for three-month delivery rose 1.3 percent to $6,573 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange. Prices have more than doubled this year, bolstered by record first-half imports into China, the world’s biggest copper consumer, as well as the weaker dollar. Chinese imports of refined copper probably will “sharply decline” next year, according to Beijing Antaike Information Development Co. Higher Premium Imports are likely to fall from an estimated 3 million tons this year, Yang Changhua of state-owned Antaike said yesterday at a conference in Wuhan, China. Still, the annual copper premium for next year in Japan and South Korea will increase by as much as 16 percent, the first gain since 2007, because of strong demand from China. The benchmark fee, set by Chilean producer Codelco, will be $75 a metric ton next year for Japan compared with $65 this year and $74 for South Korea versus $64, according to a copy of the notice received by Bloomberg News. The fees are added to immediate-delivery prices in London to reflect supply and demand and cover shipping and insurance costs. Inventories of copper in LME-monitored warehouses rose 1 percent to 389,475 tons today, the highest since May 7. Metal booked for delivery fell 23 percent to 2,075 tons, or 0.5 percent of LME copper inventories, down from 21 percent in May. In Shanghai, copper stockpiles expanded by 1,440 tons, or 1.4 percent, to 104,275 tons last week, the highest since April 2004, according to data from the Shanghai exchange. Labor negotiations are taking place this year at copper mines with combined annual capacity of 1.2 million tons, according to RBS Global Banking & Markets in London. Prices may advance should those talks fail and end in strikes. Among other LME metals for three-month delivery, aluminum rose 1.1 percent to $1,930 a ton, zinc gained 1.5 percent to $2,207 a ton, and lead advanced 2.1 percent to $2,295 a ton. Tin added 1 percent to $14,900 a ton, and nickel climbed 0.3 percent to $17,400 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Stablum in London at astablum@bloomberg.net

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