LONDON: Copper prices touched a three-week high on Friday, boosted by declines in Chinese inventories and concerns about supply of raw materials after a treatment charge deal was agreed. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.8% at $9,147 per metric ton in official open-outcry trading, having touched $9,178, the strongest since Nov. 15.
News on Thursday that Chilean miner Antofagasta and Jiangxi Copper agreed to significantly lower copper concentrate processing fees for 2025 highlighted concerns about sufficient availability of copper concentrate in the spot market.
“For 2025, we’ll probably see smelters struggle to make profits at the new TC/RCs (treatment and refining charges). Supply issues will start to bubble up in the second half of 2025,” said Daria Efanova, head of research at broker Sucden Financial.
Some investors were closing out positions ahead of the year-end and the rising copper price sparked some short-covering by speculators, Efanova added.
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