Top consumer China is expected to resume its demand for copper after the Beijing Olympics.  While this is a typical season for factories to be shut down for repairs and maintenance the Chinese government also reduced manufacturing activity further leading up to and during the Olympic games so as to improve the air quality.  Consuming about a quarter percent of global production China's imports dropped 17 percent in the first 7 months of 2008 as compared to last year at that time. 

Fears of U.S. recession and the damaging consequences for the global economy, particularly for China with large export markets in the United States, have been weighing on copper for some time now.

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