By Anna Stablum Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell in London as the dollar gained for a second day and stockpiles climbed to a six-month high, fanning concern that demand might weaken. The Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback’s performance, added as much as 0.2 percent. That made dollar- priced metals more expensive for holders of other currencies. Copper inventories monitored by the London Metal Exchange rose 1.2 percent to 402,125 tons, the highest level since May 6, and are headed for an 18th weekly increase. “Stocks keep creeping up,” said David Thurtell, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in London. “Physical demand is soft. With prices pretty fully valued, there is no screaming reason why you’d buy. We’ll just drift into the new year.” Copper for three-month delivery fell as much as $45, or 0.7 percent, to $6,495 a metric ton on the LME and was at $6,515 at 10 a.m. local time. The metal yesterday rose as high as $6,660, the highest since Oct. 30, as the dollar fell to a 15-month low. December-delivery copper lost 0.3 percent to $2.956 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division. The dollar index has dropped 7.4 percent this year, helping copper prices to double along with record first-half imports into China and expectations of an economic revival. The U.S. currency’s weakness “underpins commodity prices were they are,” Thurtell said. ‘Bumpy’ Recovery The world will only rebound gradually and unevenly from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said. “The worst is over,” Wen said in a speech televised from a forum in Beijing. “The global economy is starting to recover, but a total recovery will be a slow and bumpy process.” Chinese imports of copper and products tumbled 34 percent in October from the prior month. Purchases fell to 263,109 tons, the customs office said yesterday. “Imports will weaken a bit further,” Citigroup’s Thurtell said. “But that is already in the price.” The outlook for copper demand in the long term is very positive, said Richard Adkerson, chief executive officer of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. The Phoenix-based company is the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer. “China is leading the way, but elsewhere in Asia, eastern Europe and Latin America, there’s huge populations that are moving into high standards of living,” Adkerson said today in an interview in Singapore. Among other LME metals for three-month delivery, nickel fell 2 percent to $16,510 a ton. The contract fell as low as $16,416, the lowest intraday price since Sept. 28, as LME- monitored stockpiles rose for a seventh day to 131,730 tons, the highest since 1995. The metal is the worst LME performer over the past month, down 12 percent. Aluminum was little changed at $1,964.50 a ton, and zinc lost 0.3 percent to $2,177 a ton. Lead fell 1 percent to $2,282.75 a ton, and tin shed 0.3 percent to $14,675 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Stablum in London at astablum@bloomberg.net

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