Copper rebounds on supply worries, weaker dollar

LONDON: Copper prices bounced on Friday on renewed worries about scarce supplies and as the dollar weakened.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.3% to $9,865 a tonne in official trading, after dropping by 3.5% in the previous session.

Metals prices slid on Thursday, partly due to intervention by China to cool surging coal prices.

"Oil and gas prices are not coming down to the same extent as coal. We think that energy prices are high and will stay high for the time being and put pressure on metals producers again," said analyst Daniel Briesemann at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

Copper falls as LME squeeze begins to fade

"We expect to see higher metals prices going forward. We think the supply situation will deteriorate further before it gets better."

While the premium of cash LME copper over the three-month contract has eased to $247 a tonne from a peak of over $1,000 on Monday, LME inventories remain very low.

On-warrant LME stocks, those not earmarked for delivery, have tumbled by over 90% since mid-August.

The dollar index was down 0.1%, making commodities priced in the US currency cheaper for buyers using other currencies.

In China, prices of energy-intensive aluminium hit their limit down on Friday to their lowest in over a month on tumbling Chinese coal prices.

In London, LME aluminium rose 1.5% in official activity to $2,955 a tonne after sliding by 5.2% a day earlier.

Rising aluminium inventories in China also weighed on prices, with Shanghai stocks up for four straight weeks and social stocks in China at their highest since May 27 of 957,000 tonnes.

MMG Ltd's Las Bambas, one of Peru's largest copper mines, said that it does not have any pending commitments with Andean communities that have blocked the road used by the company to transport the mineral.

LME zinc rose 0.4% to $3,444 a tonne, nickel climbed 1.4% to $20,210, but lead dipped 0.2% to $2,395 and tin shed 0.5% to $37,050.