Shanghai Futures Exchange copper advanced 0.5 percent to 47,410 yuan ($6,900) a tonne on Thursday. The potential for supply disruptions has become an increasing focus in copper markets in the past month, Goldman Sachs said in a report, with workers at the world's largest mine in Chile set to strike and with Freeport-McMoRan Inc's Grasberg mine in Indonesia yet to be granted a new export permit.
Traders are also looking ahead to Chinese trade data on Friday for signals of the strength of the world's No.2 economy and for numbers on copper imports. Shipments are typically weaker between Christmas and the Lunar New Year. "Downside risks to supply appear increasingly likely to materialise and translate into copper production losses ... these supply-side dynamics appear increasingly likely to support our tactically bullish 1H17 copper view," said Goldman.
BHP Billiton Plc has begun halting operations at its Escondida copper mine in northern Chile, ahead of a planned strike on Thursday, a union leader told Reuters.
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