Olympic Dam shutdown sways copper price
Copper futures have closed a tad lower on the London Metal Exchange, as slow business heading into a holiday weekend allowed the bears into the market.
The LME’s three-month copper contract was down 0.1 per cent at $US5,735.00 a metric ton at Monday’s PM kerb close.
However, the red metal hit a three-week high during the session at $US5,793.50 a ton, on the back of short-covering ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year next week and production losses.
“Copper outperformed for a second week, helped by what looks set to be a big production loss at Olympic Dam,” said Stephen Briggs, a base metals analyst at BNP Paribas.
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BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mining operations were suspended after a 47-year-old worker was killed on Tuesday. In November, BHP said it was considering an expansion of Olympic Dam that could increase copper output there to 450,000 tons a year in mid-2024, from about 185,000 tons during the last financial year.
Looking ahead, traders away from their desks due to holidays in the coming week are likely to impact trade volumes and prices.
“With the US on holiday on Monday and the Chinese on holiday from Wednesday, it will be interesting to see if a technical rally does take hold,” said Standard Bank.
Aluminium closed down 0.2 per cent at $US1,836.50 a ton, zinc closed 0.2 per cent higher at $US2,151.00 a ton, nickel closed down 0.5 per cent at $US14,625.00 a ton, lead climbed 0.8 per cent to $US1,849.50 a ton, and tin closed up 1.3 per cent at $US18,225.00.
– Dow Jones
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