Europe copper premiums flat and demand weak

Reuters reported that the premium for physical copper in Europe has held flat this past week with traders citing weak demand in the region.
Traders said that the premium for copper in Rotterdam paid above the London Metal Exchange cash price was at USD 80 to USD 90 per tonne compared with quotes of USD 65 per tonne to USD 90 per tonne in late April.
One trader said that it has been fairly weak on the spot market. Most have yearly contracts there hasn't been the need to do any additional purchase so demand has been very low I would say. There's a kind of division in southern Europe things are not good, northern Europe is better.
Stocks of copper in LME warehouses are some 30% higher than in December. Three month copper on the LME closed lower at USD 9,020 per tonne.
Another trader said that "Europe is not promising at all. We've seen this financial turmoil with Greece, Spain, Ireland. We have a situation here that doesn't look too good."
It has been a particularly weak first quarter for physical copper demand as top base metals consumer China did not follow its usual pattern of striding back into the market after its Lunar New Year break in February. The market is hoping for a pick up in demand going forward.
The second trader said that "I'm not expecting a huge increase in demand but expectations are quite high because of China. They imported less copper in April and it looks like the same situation in May, so we might start to see a pick up."
A third trader said that the spot market was not that lively. We've got the summer coming up, it's a bit early yet but normally you see a bit of a slowdown there.
(Sourced from Reuters)