Chinese authorities said they were probing a commodity trading house, Decheng Mining, charged with securing loans worth $435 million after pledging three times over the same metal stocks in Qingdao port. After that some problems have cropped up.The scam came to light months ago and it has seen copper shipments to China drop drastically. In May, copper imports declined 16 percent to 3,80,000 tons from April and last month they slipped further to 3,50,000 tons.

The price of US copper producer grade 122 saw a 0.8 percent decline to $3.87 per pound. The price of US copper producer grade 110 weakened by 0.8 percent, settling at $3.87 per pound. The price of US copper producer grade 102 declined 0.7 percent to $4.06 per pound. The Japanese copper cash price remained essentially flat at JPY 749,000 ($7,389) per metric ton.