The most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped 1.4 percent to close at 42,680 yuan ($6,819) a tonne on Thursday after Lunar New Year and traders looked for any signs of appetite in the world's top user of the metal ahead of the second quarter, when demand is usually strongest. "We've started the year with the latest Chinese New Year in a long time, so that has subdued the physical market year-to-date," said Daniel Morgan of UBS in Sydney.
"Now that's behind us, we can start to get a read on what real demand is like. China should be roaring back to life. The price is cheap and they have a big grid build out coming up." The state power sector is a major copper buyer in China, which accounts for some 45 percent of global copper demand. Reflecting a rising supply of aluminium in Asia, some big producers have offered Japanese buyers a premium of $415-$425 per tonne for April-June primary metal shipments, flat to down around 2 percent from the prior quarter, three sources involved in pricing talks said on Thursday.
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