Global economic weakness has pushed copper prices down. Weaker-than-expected growth in China has caused investors to force copper prices down on the London Metal Exchange to an 18-month low. The world's most populous country accounts for about 40 percent of global copper use. With copper producers refusing to slow down output and with inventories rising, prices had nowhere to go but down. Copper industry analysts have thus moved their 2013 average price estimate down by about ten cents per pound.
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