Glencore production cuts fail to boost copper

London

THE biggest cuts to copper production this year haven't been enough to overcome the drumbeat of China's slowdown.

While copper is still up about 2 per cent after Glencore plc said it would reduce its output, the advance has stalled on renewed fears about consumption in the country that accounts for more than 40 per cent of global demand. Even a 8.3-magnitude earthquake in Chile, the world's largest copper miner, failed to send prices soaring.

"The market has been very much focused on these supply-side changes, only to be surprised when China prints a range of weak downstream macro data, making everyone a bit bearish again," Tom Price, a commodities analyst at Morgan Stanley in London, said. "It's…