Copper buoyed by falling LME stocks

LONDON: Copper prices rose on Friday as falling available inventories offset expectations of seasonally muted demand in top metals consumer China and uncertainty around progress in U.S.-Iran peace talks.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.0% at $13,642 a metric ton by 1000 GMT.

Available copper stocks in LME-registered warehouses fell to a 10-week low, LME daily data showed, after 53,325 tons were earmarked for delivery.

More than half of these cancellations were in LME warehouses in the U.S., where COMEX copper was trading at a premium over the LME benchmark as the market waited for Washington’s decision on whether to impose import tariffs by the end of June.

“The tightness in the copper market has been exacerbated by the tons pulled into the U.S., where they don’t usually sit,” said Ben Davis, head of European metals and mining research at RBC Capital Markets.

The copper market risks facing a massive return of stocks from the U.S. back to the supply chain if the threat of Washington’s tariffs is removed, he added.

On the demand side, the Yangshan copper premium - a gauge of China’s appetite for importing copper - remained at $73 a ton this week, its highest since mid-April.

However, demand in China is expected to taper soon as the country enters an off-season. Copper stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai exchange this week rose for the first time since mid-March, gaining 1.6%.

“Downstream consumption has weakened, and cargo pick-up has slowed,” said analysts at Chinese broker Galaxy Futures.

Meanwhile, LME aluminium rose 0.3% to $3,647. Reduced supply from producers in the Gulf amid the Iran war is keeping the premium of the LME aluminium cash contract against the benchmark high, indicating tightness. The premium was last at $79.

LME lead fell 0.1% to $2,002.50 after hitting a one-week high of $2,010. The discount of the LME cash contract versus the benchmark swung to a premium this week.

Zinc rose 0.8% to $3,550.50, tin gained 0.7% at $53,240, while nickel climbed 0.2% to $18,760.