US copper futures charged to a four-month peak in early business on Tuesday as concerns about a near-term supply shortfall in the industrial metal continued to steer prices higher.
Copper for March delivery was trading up 15.80 cents at 3.6810 a lb by 10:47 am EST (1547 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, near the upper end of its $3.5135 to $3.6870 morning range.
Stocks of copper in LME-registered warehouses have fallen 30 percent since the start of the year and equate to less than three day's worth of global consumption. China, the world's top copper user, imported 239,498 tonnes of unwrought copper and semi-finished copper products in January, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, data posted on the Customs Web site showed on Monday.
Jiangxi Copper, the country's top integrated copper producer, has resumed full production at its mines in Jiangxi province after severe snowstorms and coal shortages in late January to early February cut the firm's power supply and trimmed production.