Shanghai copper price registers second monthly gain on Chile supply concerns

Altonorte copper smelter, Chile. Image from Glencore.

Shanghai copper price registered a second consecutive month of gains on Monday as prices firmed on a potential supply threat in Chile and massive US infrastructure spending plans.

The most-traded July copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed 0.9% up at 73,950 yuan ($11,617.68) a tonne for a 2.1% monthly gain.

Copper for delivery in July was down 0.2% at $4.6705 ($10,275 per tonne) on Monday on the Comex market in New York.

A strike by a union of remote operations workers hit BHP’s Escondida and Spence copper mines in Chile last week, with the company using replacement workers to ensure continued production.

Chile’s manufacturing output ticked up 5.9% year-on-year in April, government statistics agency INE said on Monday, while copper output dipped 1.5%, to 467,594 tonnes.