Copper price powers on

In brisk trading on Thursday in New York, Comex copper enjoyed its 11th straight session of gains touching a two-month high of $3.2185 a pound ($7,095 per tonne).

Copper is up nearly 27% in 2017 as it continues to recover from six-year lows struck early last year and expectations are for a positive if more modest performance next year.

Estimates that global mine output has slowed 2.5% in the period end to September, as Chile, world’s most prolific copper producer saw a 4% decline in output

SP Angel, a London, UK-based investment bank specializing in the resource sector, in a note to clients says "disruptive global supply surrounding wage negotiations are expected to tighten market conditions and draw the red metal price higher":

• Despite up to 38 unions scheduled for wage negotiations in the next year, supply disruptions maybe avoided with rapid signing of new contracts. Chilean miner Antofagasta Plc announced a new wage agreement with unionised workers at its Centinela mine, defusing the risk of a strike amid a volatile labour landscape across the world’s copper-producing nation.

• According to latest assessment conducted by International Copper Study Group, stagnant copper refined copper supplies, in combination with strong Chinese apparent usage in September, conspired to lift the deficit from an estimated 160 000t for first 7 months of the year. Estimates that global mine output has slowed 2.5% in the period end to September, as Chile, world’s most prolific copper producer saw a 4% decline in output.

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