By Anna Stablum Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Copper fell from a 14-month high in London on speculation rising stockpiles and a rebound in the dollar signal slower demand for the metal. Inventories of copper in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange rose 0.1 percent to 432,075 metric tons, the highest since April 23. The U.S. Dollar Index of the greenback against six currencies gained as much as 0.6 percent, making dollar-priced metals more expensive to holders of other monies. “Copper stockpiles are increasing around the world,” Nic Brown, an analyst at Natixis Commodity Markets Ltd. in London, said by phone. “We are bearish.” Copper for three-month delivery fell $65, or 0.9 percent, to $6,920 a ton on the LME at 10:19 a.m. local time. Prices earlier today rose to $7,060, the highest since September 2008. Copper for March delivery dropped 1.1 percent to $3.162 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division. Expectations of a recovery from the world recession have helped copper to more than double this year, along with the dollar index’s 8.4 percent slide and record first-half imports into China, the world’s biggest consumer of copper. Declines in the dollar may continue to support demand for commodities, Brown said. “My concern is whether some of the commodity markets are getting too far ahead of themselves in terms of the disconnect between the price recovery and the real improvement in end-user demand.” LME Inventories LME inventories have increased for 19 consecutive weeks. Canceled warrants, or metal due to be withdrawn from warehouses, total 1,950 tons, or less than 1 percent of the total, down from 21 percent in May when shipments into China were at record highs. “Canceled warrants have been falling -- it doesn’t look good,” Brown said. Inbound shipments of copper into China dropped for the third time in four months in October, customs data showed Nov. 23. Imports fell 40 percent from the prior month to 169,374 tons. Exports jumped to a 14-month high as strong overseas prices encouraged outbound shipments. “It is not so obvious to us that there are going to be huge copper imports in the new year from China,” Brown said. “China may actually become a net exporter of some of the base metals.” Most U.S. markets are closed today for the Thanksgiving Day holiday and “being the main location for investment allocation” volumes are expected to be light, Alex Heath, head of industrial-metals trading at RBC Capital Markets in London, said in a report dated yesterday. Among other LME metals for three-month delivery, aluminum fell 0.7 percent to $2,032 a ton, and zinc shed 1.3 percent to $2,277 a ton. Nickel dropped 1 percent to $16,825 a ton, lead fell 0.6 percent to $2,376 a ton, and tin declined 0.5 percent to $14,975 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Stablum in London at astablum@bloomberg.net

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