Copper futures climbed toward $6.53 per pound on Thursday, trading near a seven-week high as tightening supply and shrinking inventories continued to underpin prices. Stockpiles in LME-registered and Shanghai-monitored warehouses have fallen sharply in recent months, pushing the Yangshan copper premium—an indicator of Chinese import demand—to a multi-year high of $115 per ton.
Supply has been further squeezed by smelter maintenance, typhoon-related stockpiling, and limited scrap availability in China, while traders have continued to move metal to the US ahead of a potential tariff on refined copper imports. Still, the upside has been constrained, as rising oil prices have reignited inflation concerns and reinforced expectations of higher interest rates, dampening the demand outlook for industrial metals.
