Copper prices rose on Friday on signs of improving demand from top metals consumer China, where buyers are looking to build up their inventory ahead of a long national holiday.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.4% at $9,982 a ton in official open-outcry trading.
The metal is down 2% since hitting $10,192.50, a 15-month high on Monday, as traders booked profits following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rate cut on Wednesday.
The Yangshan copper premium , which reflects demand for copper imported into China, rose 1.8% to $57 a ton on Friday.
Copper consumers in China purchase the metal for restocking in the run-up to the public holiday, which runs from October 1 to October 8 this year and usually slows overall activity.
Copper is likely to trade between $9,500 and $10,500 a ton in the fourth quarter, before climbing to touch $12,000 in 2026 due to the prospect of a weaker dollar and rising metal production being unable to offset higher demand, Citi said in a research note.
It expects refined copper consumption to rise 2.9% next year to 27.5 million tons, prompting the global market to swing to a deficit of 308,000 tons from this year’s 63,000-ton surplus.
Among other LME metals, aluminium was steady at $2,683.5 in official activity.
It hit a six-month high of $2,720 on Tuesday, when the premium of the cash aluminium contract against the three-month contract widened to $16 a ton, the highest since March. The premium was last at $4 a ton.
“Physical market conditions (for aluminium) remain broadly balanced on a global level, with large positioning on the LME market adding temporary volatility in nearby spreads but with limited impact on flat price,” Citi said, expecting fourth-quarter prices to average $2,650.
LME zinc dipped 0.7% to $2,896 a ton. Zinc inventories in the LME-registered warehouses have slumped in recent months, suggesting a tight market for the metal used to galvanise steel, though industry sources say supplies on the physical market are ample.
Lead rose 0.1% to $2,008, tin gained 0.1% to $33,750, while nickel added 0.3% to $15,320.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; additional reporting by Dylan Duan and Amy Lv; editing by Harikrishnan Nair)