11.  Recent London Metal Exchange warehouse reports have shown copper stockpiles in the U.S. either unchanged, or declining, while copper supplies in European warehouses rise.

12.  Rising production and a slowdown in demand are likely to send copper supplies higher this year.

13.  Still, copper supplies are ample, a result for steady increases in global mine production and refined copper output.

14.  Suspicion is increasing, though, that the withdrawals were a ruse to shore up prices and that copper supplies taken from LME warehouses in Europe will reappear elsewhere.

15.  That suggested copper supplies may not be as tight as earlier anticipated.

16.  The copper supplies have been hovering around six-year lows.

17.  The focus of the discussions, the regulators charged, was how to control copper supplies and drive up prices.

18.  The jump bolstered expectations that copper supplies held in exchanges will grow in the coming months, easing concern of spot shortages.

19.  The reversal, a hallmark of earlier Hamanaka squeezes that is known as a backwardation, made no sense in light of mounting evidence that copper supplies exceeded demand.

20.  The weaker Asian demand also has resulted in a shifting of copper supplies out of the region, analysts said.