US copper futures end firm

US copper futures ended near their session highs on Wednesday as lingering strike threats boosted values and traders focused on rolling positions from the nearby July contract ahead of its first notice day at the end of the month, traders and analysts said.
"I think the market overall is fairly focused more on rolling July into September. First notice day is coming up on June 29 and I think the emphasis will be on the roll as we get closer and closer," said one trader down on the floor of the exchange.
Most-active September copper settled up 4.15 cents to $3.4410 a lb. on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, near the upper end of its $3.3885-$3.4470 trading band.
"It looks like that $3.50 area, where we keep trying to get above, may be in our sight for another challenge this week," the trader said. Soon-to-be spot July copper rose 4.80 cents to finish at $3.4425 while the deferred or back months ended with gains ranging from 2.65 to 4.80 cents.
Final estimated copper futures volumes reached 13,472 lots, down from Tuesday's official count at 17,569 lots. Open interest in Comex copper futures rose 90 lots to 78,337 contracts as of June 19. Analysts noted falling stock levels in the United States and in London, as well as a number of labour disputes around the globe, continued to be a supportive factor amid growing concern supply will not be able to keep pace with global demand.
This point was echoed after the World Bureau of Metal Statistics research group reported that the copper market was in deficit by 176,000 tonnes for January to April this year.
"Production losses were substantial in both 2005 and 2006 due in part to strikes and the potential remains high that disruptions will continue to support high copper prices," noted Robin Bar, base metals strategist with investment bank UBS. "At risk is some 4.12 million tonnes of production capacity amounting to 21 percent of global copper supply," Bar said.
At the forefront was a potential strike across the five divisions of Chile's Codelco, the world's largest copper producer. Subcontract workers at the mine planned to meet in general assembly on Thursday to give the final go-ahead to strike.
Also in Chile, workers at Collahuasi, one of the world's largest copper mines, have set a strike vote for June 27, barring an improved wage offer from the company that could be voted on before then.
Wage demands were also seen in Peru, where workers at Southern Copper Corp's two copper mines and a smelter planned to strike on June 23. Meanwhile, workers were still off the job at Strata's Plc Canadian Copper Refinery (CCR) unit in Montreal, with the company saying that there were no immediate plans to meet with unions. Last week, Strata declared force major at the 370,000 tonne a year refinery and said shipments would be affected by the strike.
Looking at supply, London copper warehouse stocks continued their downward trend, falling 750 tonnes to 114,200 tonnes on Wednesday, leaving supply at less than three days of global consumption. Comex stocks fell 357 to 23,808 short tons on Tuesday. LME copper for delivery in three months closed up $80 to $7,510 a tonne from Tuesday's close.