By Eileen Soreng
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 CMCU3 was up 0.3% at $9,533 a tonne, as of 0640 GMT. The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 was steady at 69,440 yuan ($10,914.29) 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.
On-warrant LME inventories MCUSTX-TOTAL 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. MKTS/GLOB
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.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME aluminium CMAL3 was up 1.6% at $2,647 a tonne, zinc CMZN3 rose 0.4% to $3,343, nickel CMNI3 gained 0.5% to $19,850 a tonne and lead CMPB3 was 0.8% at $2,302.5 a tonne.
* ShFE aluminium SAFcv1 rose 1.7% to 19,150 yuan a tonne, nickel SNIcv1 fell 0.4% to 144,970 yuan a tonne and lead SPBcv1 climbed 1.8% to 15,730 yuan a tonne.
* 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.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click
TOP/MTL or MET/L
($1 = 6.3623 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Rashmi Aich)
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