Copper rebounds as supply risks, China demand lend support

SINGAPORE: London copper rose on Friday, recovering most of the previous session’s losses, as mine disruptions and strong demand in top consumer China supported prices.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.08% to $14,464 a metric ton by 0300 GMT, after dropping 1.15% in the previous session.

It has climbed 1.44% so far this week.

The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.61% to 110,060 yuan ($16,431.03) a ton, tracking overnight losses in London.

“Copper is near record levels, supported by supply-side issues,” Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ, said in a note.

The Yangshan copper premium - a gauge of China’s appetite for imported copper - ose to $125 a ton, its highest since November 2022, on Thursday, when China returned from a week-long holiday.

A workers’ union at Antofagasta’s Centinela copper mine in Chile said their ongoing strike would begin to weigh on output in November, when production could fall by half.

Antofagasta earlier downplayed the impact of the strike.

Disruptions at other mines added to already heightened supply risk, while stocks outside the US have fallen as copper has been pulled into the country ahead of potential tariffs on refined copper imports.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of other currencies, nudged lower.

Oil prices also edged down on Friday.

Both had earlier weighed on industrial metals.

A stronger dollar makes commodities more expensive for buyers using other currencies, while elevated energy prices threaten to stoke inflationary concerns and weigh on economic activity.

Among LME metals, aluminium gained 1.08%, zinc gained 0.97%, lead gained 0.75%, nickel gained 0.72% and tin rose 1.56%.

Among SHFE metals, aluminium dipped 0.34%, zinc lost 1.09%, lead lost 1.3%, nickel dipped 0.08% and tin dropped 4.03%.