BLBG: Copper Rebounds on Dollar Slump, Possible Labor Dispute at Collahuasi Mine
Copper rebounded from a two-day drop as the dollar resumed a decline, and on concern that there may be supply disruptions at the world’s fourth-largest mine.
Copper for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange gained as much as 0.7 percent to $8,354.50 a metric ton and traded at $8,340 a ton at 11:44 a.m. in Singapore. February- delivery copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell as much as 1 percent to 63,600 yuan ($9,512) a ton, after rising to 65,600 yuan yesterday, the highest price since April 2008.
Workers at Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc’s Collahuasi copper mine in Chile, the world’s largest copper producer, rejected a company wage offer in a vote yesterday, the union said. Minera Dona Ines de Collahuasi, as the operating company is known, will request mediated talks that would delay a strike by five working days, the company said.
“A strike in Chile is a short-term support for prices that are trading beyond their fundamentals,” Lu Shihua, an analyst at New Era Futures Co., said from Jiangsu today. “The dollar continues to drive day-to-day moves. However, we’re beginning to see demand destruction at these prices and we’ll get more demand falling off as we move into the seasonally weak consumption period.”
The dollar snapped a two-day winning streak against a six- currency basket including the euro on optimism that the global economic recovery remains intact. A European report today may show that confidence in the region’s outlook improved for a fifth consecutive month.
Aluminum in London rose 0.5 percent to $2,333.50 a ton, nickel gained 0.6 percent to $22,930 a ton and tin added 0.6 percent to $26,200 a ton. Zinc climbed 0.2 percent to $2,516 a ton and lead was little changed at $2,547 a ton.
To contact the reporter on this story: Glenys Sim in Singapore at Gsim4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@Bloomberg.net