Copper free falls: drops 7% to US $1.80 per pound

LONDON.- Copper closed with another loss, the third in a row and the sixteenth in twenty sessions, today at the London Metal Exchange (LME), after trading for US $1.80802 per pound of "grade A", compared to US $1.94410 on Wednesday and US $2.03663 on Tuesday.

As a result, the monthly average dropped to US $2.37049, while the yearly average slipped to US $3.51126.

Today's value is the lowest for the red metal since October 14th of 2005, when it traded for US $1.79623.

Meanwhile, the future-3-month price ended at US $1.79849 per pound, down 7.47% from Wednesday (US $1.94364).

At the LME, stocks increased by 1,500 metric tons to 209,250. So far this year, there has been an accumulated increase of 11,800 MT (+5.98%).