LONDON: Copper edged higher on Monday as production stoppages at the world's two biggest mines lent support, though moves were muted as markets awaited further clues on U.S. infrastructure spending from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The metal hit its highest since May 2015 on Feb. 13 on news of a strike at BHP Billiton's Escondida copper mine in Chile, and a contractual dispute that halted operations at Freeport-McMoran's Grasberg facility in Indonesia.
That has continued to support copper within $100 of this month's peak, extending gains after Friday's 1.2 percent increase.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.1 percent at $5,935 a tonne in official midday trading.
"On the fundamental side for copper, we have the strikes, (and) we've seen data recently supporting the notion that there is still some good upside for the global manufacturing cycle," Danske Bank analyst Jens Pedersen said. "Then we have this Donald Trump speech tomorrow in front of Congress.
"A lot of the price increase we've seen since November last year has been on the prospect of significant spending on public infrastructure in the U.S., and so far, there haven't been any real concrete plans on this," he said. "The market is likely looking for any hints (on that) tomorrow."
On-warrant copper stocks - material not tagged for shipment from LME warehouses, and thus available to investors - fell 29,725 tonnes on Friday to their lowest since May 2014, exchange data showed.
BHP Billiton has decided to give up its legal right to replace striking workers at the Escondida mine, a move aimed at sacrificing some output to undermine the union's position, analysts said.
"We only need 1.1 million tonnes of unexpected disruptions this year for a small deficit (in copper)," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note on Monday.
Hedge funds and money managers cut their net long position in copper futures and options to its lowest in over a month, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed.
Aluminium was up 1.1 percent in official trading at $1,905 a tonne. Other base metals were untraded in official rings.
LME zinc was last bid down 0.4 percent at $2,817 a tonne after nearly doubling over the past 13 months. Signs of tightening in the global market for refined zinc means the rally may have further to run, analysts said.
Lead was last bid 0.1 percent lower at $2,258 a tonne, while tin was last bid up 0.7 percent at $19,275 a tonne and nickel was last bid 0.9 percent higher at $10,955 a tonne.
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