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Commodities: Copper up on rosy demand outlook

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-13 08:09

Shanghai copper rose less than 1 percent Monday, following on from Friday's rally, as investors bet on rising demand to offset currently soft fundamentals.

London copper recovered from Friday's losses, but was nearly $100 below the three-week high of $6,363 a ton hit on Thursday.

"Investors are optimistic on copper prices in the medium and long term. Consumption in the cable sector hasn't seen much improvement, but in electronics plants, consumption is a lot better than last year," said Lin Yuhui, deputy general manager of Jinhui Futures.

Shanghai's benchmark third-month copper futures contract closed up 0.6 percent at 49,100 yuan ($7192) a ton, building on the 1.3-percent gain last Friday.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) gained $34 to $6,264 a ton by 0701 GMT, adding to last week's 6-percent gain, its strongest in nine weeks.

Investors are eyeing China's preliminary September trade data, due on Wednesday, to see whether demand from the world's top consumer of base metals is holding up.

Related readings:  Copper imports may decline  Gold heats up, metal climbs to $1,058/ounce  Metal demand back on track

Imports of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products are expected to fall for the third straight month, after record imports in the first half of the year.

China's high copper imports would not necessarily end in serious supply surplus, as real consumption has picked up, said Zhu Yanzhong, an analyst at Jinrui Futures.

LME aluminum shed $7 to $1,902 a ton, after a near 6-percent gain in the last week. Shanghai aluminum inched up 0.3 percent to 14,895 yuan.

LME nickel rose 1.2 percent to $18,980 a ton, and LME lead edged up $11 to $2,260, despite the record high stockpiles of both metals.