Gold Silver Reports (GSR) – Copper on MCX settled up 1.43% at 442.9 after a Trump administration official told the list of items that China said it was not willing to negotiate was unacceptable to the United States.
Prices received a further boost when the U.S. dollar weakened after Federal Reserve officials appeared to question the pace of interest rate rises and from strong U.S. manufacturing data.
Headline copper inventories in LME-registered warehouses fell by 5,425 tonnes to 161,025 tonnes, nearing last month’s 10-year low of 136,675 tonnes.
Another signal of tight supply is the premium of cash copper over the three-month contract, which has drifted from a near four-year high of $47 last month to $18.50 but is still far above recent norms.
Chinese copper smelter Jiangxi Copper and miner Antofagasta agreed 2019 copper treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) at $80.80 a tonne and 8.08 cents a pound in the first big deal for next year, lower than a 2018 benchmark of $82.25 a tonne and 8.225 cents a pound.
Chile’s state copper agency Cochilco lowered its average copper price prediction for this year by $0.03 to $2.97 per pound in its second negative projection in six months.
