US copper futures rose nearly one percent in early trade on Wednesday, mirroring gains in overseas markets as warnings of supply shortages from China's largest copper producer fuelled the buying, analysts said.
"The firmer tone emanated from the Far East, where there were reports that China's leading producer, Jiangxi, warned that its warehouse stocks were running very low," said Edward Meir, metals analyst with Man Financial, in a daily metals comment.
Copper for March delivery was up 2.55 cents, or 0.99 percent, at $2.6050 a lb. by 10:14 am EST (1514 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, moving from $2.5755 and $2.6175. Spot January gained 1.60 cents to trade at its morning trough at $2.5825.
Copper volumes by 9:00 am EST were estimated at only 1,000 lots. Pan Qifang, a senior official at Jiangxi Copper, said that there was only a little refined copper in their warehouse and that they were nearly empty now. Jiangxi has an annual output of around 440,000 tonnes, most of which is sold on a long-term basis. "Some of our mining facilities are under annual maintenance now, which I believe will impact production," Pan said.
Comments
Comments are closed.