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Copper nears record as Shanghai and London inventories drain
Stocks tracked by Shanghai Metals Market slid 70% since early June, while LME cancelled warrants rose by 6,700 tonnes to 122,150 tonnes on Tuesday.
Copper prices climbed for a sixth straight session as tightening physical supplies in China and across key warehouses pushed buyers to secure metal ahead of the holiday shutdowns. Mining.com reports that imported copper in China has moved to fabricators instead of sitting in warehouses, with Shanghai stocks dropping sharply.
On the Comex, December copper rose as much as 1.6% to $6.8710 a pound in New York and was trading around $6.8370 by late morning, up 1.1% on the day and close to the record settlement of $6.8885 from September 9. On the London Metal Exchange, three-month copper rose 0.7% to $14,766 a tonne, within 1% of the September 10 peak, keeping the New York-London premium above $300 a tonne.
In Shanghai, the most-traded contract on the SHFE gained 1.2% to 111,320 yuan ($16,616) a tonne. Copper inventories in SHFE warehouses have fallen 70% since early June, and cathode inventories in Shanghai, the trading and consumption hub, dropped to 43,900 tonnes last week, the lowest since 2023, according to Shanghai Metals Market.
Mining.com also pointed to back-and-forth signals in exchange availability, including cash copper settling at a $62 a tonne premium to the three-month contract on Monday, a backwardation that indicates buyers cannot wait for delivery. Cancelled warrants in LME warehouses increased by 6,700 tonnes to 122,150 tonnes on Tuesday, leaving 133,725 tonnes actually available, while Comex warehouses held 696,204 tonnes, about 69% of all exchange-monitored copper.
Latest closeCopper $6.801 ▲0.6%