Copper prices rose on Tuesday, buoyed by decades-low supplies and an extreme shortage of readily available metal in exchange warehouses.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.5 percent to $10,351 a ton, while the most-traded November copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 0.2 percent at 75,810 yuan ($11,834.77) a ton.
LME cash copper was at a record high $1,103.50-a-ton premium over the three-month contract, compared to $55 just a week earlier, indicating tight nearby inventories.
“There seems to really be no copper around. (Trading) volumes have been monster, but with spreads this tight, some people are too frightened to get involved as there is too much at stake,” said commodities broker Anna Stablum of Marex Spectron.
“For once, we are actually discounting macro here and just looking at micro.”
On-warrant LME copper inventories plunged to 14,150 tons on Friday, their lowest since 1998, before rising to 21,050 tons, with one entity controlling between 50 percent and 79 percent of LME copper warrants, LME data showed.