Copper crossing the Rubicon. 90 days before copper Armageddon.

(edit 03/09/11) I have come out with a new article updating my bearish points on Copper

http://merrillovermatter.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-is-not-copper-you-are-looking-for.html

As I have mentioned before, copper inventory fundamentals support neither the current price nor the medium term price momentum.

In this somewhat longer post I'll lay out the case of how copper's fate will be decided within the next 90 days.

Inventories
The first chart shows recent inventory numbers for copper.  Since the 4th quarter of 2009 inventories have steadily risen with only one week of net declines. During that time inventories have consistently climbed at an average of at least 1,600 metric tons a day.

Looking back, inventories peaked at ~ 548,000 tons at the LME during the height of the financial panic in February 2009.  As of Friday, Jan 29, 2010 541,050 tons were sitting in the LME warehouses.  Throughout the world total copper inventories have surpassed their 2009 peak.

Longer term whenever copper inventories got up to the levels we are seeing today copper prices were usually in the sub $1 dollar range versus the 3.00+ price we are seeing right now.  (ht Wildebeests)



Technicals
Copper prices have dropped since the beginning of the year and has recently touched the 100 day moving average line.  Unless there is a massive upsurge in the price of copper over the next few days it is likely the 20 day moving average will cross over the 50.  I am hoping for a good solid bounce off this correction to initiate some short positions.

Seasonally copper is strongest during the first quarter of the year.  I'm speculating this is due to industrial concerns ordering copper in anticipation of the needs for the coming year.  (ht Spectrum Commodities)   If copper inventories continue to build throughout the first quarter 2010, when the seasonal boost ends we could see a very nasty fall in the price of copper.

Supply

As I have mentioned in previous posts all major copper mines appear to be up and running with no strikes or work stoppages.  Only one BHP mine in Australia is running at reduced capacity and it is scheduled to return to full capacity by March 31,2010 (source)

Demand

Even the International Copper Study Group shows excess supply and low demand. 
http://www.icsg.org/images/stories/pdfs/presrels_2010_01.pdf

In the first 10 months of 2009, world usage is estimated to have decreased by 1% compared with that in the same period of 2008.  Chinese apparent usage, which accounted for 40 % of world usage over this period, grew by 1.8 Mt (43%) and nearly offset an 18% decline in the rest of the world.* Usage in the EU-15 countries, Japan, and the United States, which combined accounted for about  29.5% of world usage, decreased by 21%, 31%, and 21%, respectively.

Re read that quote.  Copper usage increased by 43% in China but declined dramatically in the industrialized world.  If China had not gone on its lending bender copper usage would be in the toilet.  Even with the dramatic demand increase in China copper inventories still went up.

Previous posts here have revealed my opinion of the bubble forming in China.  Tightening monetary conditions in China will not help short term copper demand.

The counter argument
I am watching copper inventories on a daily basis now waiting for an entry point to initiate my short positions.  If copper inventories suddenly started going down instead of almost daily marching higher I would have to reconsider this thesis of a coming copper collapse.  I do not consider current monetary policy by any of the major powers stimulative enough to counteract the current inventory overhang from  either a demand creation or  montary inflation perspective.

Weapon of Choice
So how do you trade this?  For long only accounts you can try BOS.  It is an ETN which tracks the daily inverse price of copper, aluminum, and zinc.  Considering the high correlations of the three metals and the similar inventory situations it may be the best long way to trade this. There are some double inverse material etf's out there but I try to avoid the 2x leveraged etfs.  The decay rate is too dramatic and chews into your returns too quickly.

If you can / are willing to short there are multiple ways to play this.  Shorting FCX, PCU, TCK are some of the obvious methods, but shorting the country etfs of Australia (EWA), Chile (ECH), and Peru (EPU) would provide strong materials stock exposure.  If commodity prices tank all three countries will experience severe financial distress.

Please look at http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/  for some data on how Australia's debt loads are setting it up for a financial crisis similiar to what America just experienced.  Only the ravenous demand for raw materials by China kept it from experiencing a severe decline.  If commodity prices drop Australia is toast.

I have not completed all of my studies on any of the companies or countries enough to recommend you short them.  I am merely providing them as some ideas for further study by you.

Disclosure: As I don't know your financial situation, propensity for risk, tax situation, liquidity needs, or anything else about your financial situation this strategy may or may not be suitable for you.  I am laying out an aggressive strategy that can backfire if what I foresee does not come about.  Don't come crying to me if it doesn't work out. If it does, just give me credit and 2 and 20 :)   I am currently neither long nor short any of the securities mentioned above but intend to purchase or short some or all of them in the near future.

Additional Reading

http://agmetalminer.com/2009/12/08/copper-which-way-next/

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/global-tactical-asset-allocation-commodities

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/copper-new-precious-metal

http://seekingalpha.com/article/185619-base-metals-correction-start-of-a-crash-or-a-bear-trap?source=commenter  -- He has several good charts on how the commercial traders are also very short at this time.

(edit 03/09/11) I have come out with a new article updating my bearish points on Copper
http://merrillovermatter.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-is-not-copper-you-are-looking-for.html

Copper update: supplies going up and demand is ????

Some recent news on the copper fundamentals. 

A major strike at Codelco's mine lasted but a few days before the large bonus offered by management was accepted (Reuters, 2010 Jan 6)

Vale is restaring the Sudbury smelter which produces nickel and some copper. I don't have stats on how much copper it produces each day but the mine has been out of production since July.  It sounds like this strike will last a while and Vale is willing to bring in replacement workers.   (Reuters, 2010 Jan 7)

Note, from my research I believe the Vale / Sudbury mine is the ONLY copper mine out of action due to a strike. 

BHP's Olympic Dam slowdown due to equipment failure is due to be back up to full capacity by March 31,2010. Full capacity is estimated at ~600 / tons day. (BHP, 2009 October 8)  (BHP, 2009 November 6)  (Wikipedia)

All other major copper mines in the world appear to be running.  If you know of any that are not I'd appreciate an email.

Longer term, the Antamina mine recently won approval for expansion  (BHP, 2010 Jan 5)

On the demand side it is always difficult to know precisely, but copper inventories continue to rise.  The first quarter of the year is seasonally a strong time for copper prices.  I'll post more on the dynamics as I see it soon(tm)

The smell of lending bubbles in China. Do you like butter on your popcorn?

One item which is becoming a pet peeve of mine is the practice of writing articles making predictions with no underlying factual data to buttress their conclusions.  If you are going to predict something, at least tell me why! 

A current hot topic is China and whether it is in a bubble.  And if in a bubble, what kind?  Well, here's some juicy data and anecdotal evidence for you to chew on.

If you notice, lending in China skyrocketed last year.  As of November 30, 2009, total loans outstanding are up nearly 35% year over year.  That is a huge increase in the rate of growth.  

I would put to you that all that money sloshing around did not just end up in solidly performing loans made with proper underwriting standards with the full expectation they will be paid back. 

Sharp eyed readers may notice the decline in lending growth from October 07 to the nadir of November 08 coincides with the dramatic decline in the Chinese equity markets almost perfectly.  Once the lending spigots were turned back on the Chinese markets reversed course and charged back up again. 

I have previously mentioned my suspicions that some of that lending deluge has also made its way into the commodity markets as pure speculation, but I'll leave that to a later entry.

The hedge fund manager Jim Chanos has also noticed this excess credit creation.  Around time point 4:15 he starts to discuss China and their excessive lending.


When will this bubble pop? Can't tell you that. Keeping the pace of lending up at 35+% yoy may be a challenge for the Chinese government this year as the banks are running out of spare capital. There's already a lot of talk and some action trying to tamp down the speculative fires in property prices.  Where and when this all goes poof  is subject to speculation.  If it ends in 2010 it will punch a serious hole in the current world-recovery-buy-commodities-and-all-risky-assets theme. Its a dangerous game to play right now as prices can go parabolic before they go splat but I'm watching and waiting. 

Sit back and get your popcorn. The show will be very interesting to watch in 2010.

Contrary Copper talk part 2

I recently blogged about the rising copper inventories worldwide.   Copper inventories keep growing at an accelerated pace.

So why are prices rising as well?  I see a few items driving prices higher right now, those being the dollar, an expectation for a recovering worldwide economy, and strikes at copper mines in South America.

The recovering world economy and China specifically has been the standard mantra for why asset prices are rising, whatever the asset.  If China is rebounding, why are Chinese copper exports rising?  If China has a desperate need for copper right now why are the traders sending copper out of the country?  Don't know, but this does not coincide with the bullish copper thesis. 

There have been several strikes in South America at copper mines and several large copper mines have their work contracts ending in the next two months (Reuters list) .   So far all the striking mines have gone back to work and contracts at some mines have recently been concluded. The long running (40+ days) BHP / Spence mine copper strike just ended.  (Bloomberg)   Spence mine produced about 500 tons of copper a day so you can add that to the 2000+ tons / day of excess inventory already going into inventories.

A recovering housing market has been the hope of copper bulls as well, but as you will note from my numerous housing posts I do not think new home construction will come roaring back in America any time soon.  I suggest you go to Calculatedriskblog for the full details on American housing.

I don't have any short positions on copper or copper miners as the momentum upwards is just too strong and it fits with the worlwide reflation theme.  When this theme ends I fear copper prices could revert lower if inventories keep rising.

Some contrary copper talk

There really isn't a commodity that hasn't gone up dramatically this year [edit: ok, I forgot about natural gas, it has dropped like a rock]  as a counter response to the dramatic fall in prices last year, a flood of central bank liquidity, and hopes for a strong worldwide rebound.  Copper has not disappointed.  At $3.00 / pound it is nearly back up to the $4 highs of 2008. 

Is this dramatic run up in copper prices justified? I'm beginning to wonder.  I began examining copper in an attempt to see if the inventory increases in oil were consistent with other raw materials.  Like oil, copper's inventories continue to rise worldwide.  As you can see from the graphs below inventories are steadily marching upwards worlwide. 

The graphs only go back 5 years but futher back inventories peaked (for COMEX + LME) at around 1,250,000 metric tons in 2002.  Copper was also around a buck a pound back then. Today the world is at at less than half that inventory figure.

What then is keeping copper prices so elevated? In the short term a serious equipment failure at BHP's Olympic Dam mine gave boost to copper and uranium prices.

I see two major longer term factors giving a lift to prices, the dollar and a mindframe of a recovering global economy.   The trend is also upwards and this market seems to be very much driven by technical trading more than anything else right now.  If the world economy does not rebound and the dollar stops dropping I think copper prices could rapidly reverse.

Right now I'm not really long or short copper or any copper producers, but I'm investigating further.  If copper inventories keep rising the bulls are going to have a harder time justifying prices at their current levels.

Simon Hunt has been extremely bearish on copper recently.

My skeptical view of the copper rally has also put me at odds with the Chinese pig farmer trading community. 

Many thanks to Sober Look for his assistance in acquiring some of this data.

Source:

Bloomberg - Chinese copper inventories

Kitco metals