Shanghai copper hits near 4-week high on supply woes

Lujiazui area of Pudong, Shanghai. Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons

Copper futures prices climbed to their highest in nearly four weeks on Monday on supply worries, following a fall in inventories and operations suspension in major producer nations.

The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) climbed as much as 1.9% to 41,980 yuan ($5,958.80) a tonne, its highest since March 17. The contract closed at 41,850 yuan a tonne, up 1.6%.

Copper stocks in warehouses tracked by ShFE CU-STX-SGH fell for the fourth straight week to 317,928 tonnes on Friday, the lowest since the week ended Feb. 28.

Disruptions to operations or logistics due to the pandemic in America and Africa that raised supply concerns and signs of a pick-up in Chinese demand also supported prices.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc said it has suspended operations at its Chino copper mine in New Mexico indefinitely because of the spread of covid-19 among the site’s workers.

Glencore’s Katanga mining sent 350 workers to be repatriated this week after the copper and cobalt miner delayed the commissioning of an acid plant in Democratic Republic of Congo.

($1 = 7.04505 yuan)

(By Mai Nguyen; Editing by Uttaresh.V and Rashmi Aich)

Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *