London copper hits five-month high breaking above $10,000/t mark
Source: Live Mint
(Adds analyst comment, updates prices, changes dateline)
LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) – London copper prices hit a five-month high on Thursday breaking above a major psychological mark of $10,000 per metric ton before retreating under pressure from a stronger dollar.
Benchmark three-month copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 0.1% to $9,975 a ton by 1151 GMT after hitting $10,046.50, its highest since October 3.
Supporting the London price is the continuing growth in the most active May copper futures on the U.S. Comex exchange , which were last up 0.5% at $5.125 a pound after hitting a ten-month high of $5.1485.
The premium of the Comex most active contract hit a record high of $1,342 per ton on Wednesday and was last at $1,319 as the United States continues a probe into potential new tariffs on copper. U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium products took effect last week.
With a wide premium between the Comex and LME copper and the tariff threat itself, lots of copper is heading to the United States now, a source at a U.S. warehouse operator said.
The anticipated surge in imports into the U.S. is tightening supplies in other regions, analysts at ING said in a note.
Comex copper stocks
are down 7.5% since mid-February to 93,154 tons, but outflows from the LME copper stocks continue, daily LME data showed. The copper stocks in the LME-registered warehouses
are at 223,275 metric tons, their lowest since mid-July.
LME aluminium rose 0.5% to $2,682.50 a ton and zinc gained 0.1% to $2,926.50 after daily LME data showed massive fresh cancellations, bringing the cancelled stocks to 60% of the total for both metals. <0#MALSTX-LOC> <0#MZNSTX-LOC>
The cancellations indicate only the intention to remove the product from the LME system, and the metal can be put back on warrant.
LME lead fell 1.0% to $2,065.50, tin lost 0.3% to $34,815 and nickel was down 0.3% at $16,355. (Reporting by Polina Devitt; Additional reporting by Violet Li; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
