London red metal jumps past $9,000 per ton for first time since Sept. 2011

HANOI — London copper jumped on Monday to cross the $9,000 a ton level for the first time since September 2011, extending a rally that has been driven mainly by expectation of a pick-up in demand after the Chinese New Year.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) climbed as much as 3.1% to $9,187 a ton, the highest since September 2011, also helped by a weaker dollar. Last week, it posted its third straight weekly gain.

The contract is now 10% below the all-time high of $10,190 a ton touched in February 2011.

The most-traded April copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced as much as 6% to 67,370 yuan ($10,433.64) a ton, its highest since August 2011.

The dollar fell to a three-year low on rising risk sentiment, making greenback-priced LME metals cheaper to holders of other currencies.

Meanwhile, copper demand is expected to rise as top consumer China returned from a long holiday and on hopes of a stronger global economic recovery due to COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and further stimulus.

Myanmar’s military coup and declaration of a state of emergency has sparked concern in neighboring China over metal and mineral supplies amid already high tin, copper and rare earth prices.

Myanmar is the world’s thirdbiggest miner of tin, according to the International Tin Association (ITA), and in 2020 accounted for more than 95% of China’s imports of tin concentrate, used by smelters to make refined tin for circuit-board soldering.

China’s overall import reliance is 30-35%.

Shipments from Myanmar, which borders China’s tin-smelting heartland of Yunnan, fell 13.5% last year amid coronavirus-related disruption.

LME cash copper was at a $37.25-a-ton premium over the three-month contract, the highest since Sept. 18, indicating tight nearby supplies.

ShFE tin leaped as much as 8.6% to a record high of 194,030 yuan a ton. LME tin hit its highest since August 2011 at $27,000 a ton.