Copper Prices Rise as LME Warehouse Stocks Plummet

Copper prices rose on Friday, putting them on track for an eighth consecutive weekly gain. The increase was driven by withdrawal requests from London Metal Exchange warehouses, which raised concerns about availability.

Benchmark three-month copper on the LME climbed 0.22% to $14,314.5 a metric ton, with a 0.7% rise so far this week. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange edged 0.4% higher to 108,820 yuan ($16,191.77) a ton.

Craig Lang, principal analyst at CRU, attributed the copper price support to 'another large increase in LME warrant cancellations.' This week's spree of LME copper warrant cancellations offset much of the stock gains from big inflows last week. Available copper in LME-registered warehouses was down 59% to 107,050 tons on Thursday.