Nov 30 (Reuters) – Copper prices advanced on Monday, with London copper on track for its best monthly gain in four years, as top consumer China posted upbeat manufacturing growth.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.5% to $7,608 tonne by 0145 GMT, up 13.3% on a monthly basis, on track for its strongest monthly gain since November 2016.
The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed as much as 2.8% to 57,180 yuan ($8,694.20) a tonne, a level unseen since December 2017.
China’s factory activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years in November, keeping it on track to be the first major economy to fully recover from the coronavirus crisis.
Copper is used widely in the manufacturing sector and China consumes about half of the metal globally.
FUNDAMENTALS
* A union on strike at Chile’s Candelaria copper mine accepted a new offer from Canadian miner Lundin Mining Corp following an over month-long walk-off.
* Copper miners and smelters are late agreeing charges for processing concentrate for next year, sources said, with smelters seeking a rollover while miners are pointing to a tight spot market.
* ShFE lead climbed 3.8% to 15,885 yuan a tonne, zinc advanced 2.8% to 21,515 yuan a tonne and aluminium was up 2.1% to 16,350 yuan a tonne. LME lead rose 0.9% to $2,118 a tonne while zinc increased 1% to $2,824 a tonne.
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MARKETS NEWS
* World shares were set to seal a record-busting month as the prospect of a vaccine-driven global economic recovery next year and yet more free money from central banks eclipsed concerns about the pandemic in the near-term.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
1300 Germany CPI Prelim YY Nov
1300 Germany HICP Prelim YY Nov
1400 EU Euro zone finance ministers meet
$1 = 6.5768 yuan Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Rashmi Aich
