Copper rises on stronger risk appetite, China’s vow to stabilise economy

Dec 13 (Reuters) – Copper prices rose on Monday helped by firmer risk appetite, while top consumer China’s pledge to focus on economic stability also bolstered demand outlook for the metal.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.3% at $9,530 a tonne, as of 0800 GMT. The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 0.2% to 69,570 yuan ($10,932.83) a tonne.

“Slowdown in the China property starts, impact of new COVID-19 variants on growth ex-China will hamper demand for metals at the beginning of 2022,” Citi analysts said in a note.

“But we expect easing of the supply chain bottlenecks and potential small increase in credit impulse in China in the second half – which should be supportive for demand.”

China said it would implement a prudent monetary policy and a proactive fiscal policy to stabilise the economy and keeping growth within a reasonable range in 2022. read more

On-warrant LME inventories rose to 78,300 tonnes, their highest in more than two months, but were still down 67% from August high of 238,725 tonnes.

Asian stocks rose with investors seemingly confident that markets can weather whatever comes from a host of central bank meetings this week, including the likely early end to U.S. policy stimulus.

Focus was on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, due on Dec. 14-15, where the central bank is widely expected to signal faster tapering of its asset buying programme and an early start to rate hikes.

* LME aluminium was up 1.2% at $2,639 a tonne, zinc rose 0.4% to $3,346, nickel gained 0.6% to $19,865 a tonne and lead was 0.8% at $2,303 a tonne.

* ShFE aluminium rose 2.1% to 19,220 yuan a tonne, nickel eased 0.3% to 145,170 yuan a tonne and lead climbed 1.9% to 15,740 yuan a tonne.

* More than a dozen Chinese-listed companies said they had suspended production in coronavirus-hit parts of China’s eastern Zhejiang province in response to local government’s tightened COVID-19 curbs, causing their share prices to plunge. read more

* China’s major copper smelters boosted output by 1.3% in November from the previous month as fewer producers carried out maintenance and power supply shortages eased, state-backed research house Antaike said on Friday.

* Major copper miners and Chinese smelters have moved closer to agreement on treatment and refining charges (TC/RC) for 2022, two sources with knowledge of the talks said on Friday.

* MMG Ltd’s (1208.HK) Las Bambas copper mine has increased its offer of jobs and investment to a Peruvian province blockading a road used to transport the red metal in a bid to stave off a production shutdown next week, meeting minutes seen by Reuters show. read more

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($1 = 6.3634 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Rashmi Aich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.