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 0.5 percent at $9,122 per metric ton, having touched $9,178.50, the strongest since Nov. 15.
US Comex copper futures rose 0.5 percent to $4.18 a lb.
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.
Although copper has shed 10 percent since touching a four-month peak of $10,158 on Sept. 30, it has rebounded after sinking to $8,904 on Monday. The market has also been bolstered by a steady erosion of inventories on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), which registered another 10 percent decline in weekly data on Friday, bringing the total fall since early June to 71 percent.
