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Informist, Friday, Aug. 8, 2025

By Ashutosh Pati

MUMBAI – Futures contracts of copper rose on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India and the London Metal Exchange Friday on worries about supply after the shutdown of a major mine in Chile. Market sentiment was also lifted by stronger-than-expected trade data from top consumer China.

Chilean state-run miner Codelco reduced COPPER extraction operations at its El Teniente mine after an earthquake killed six workers last week. Codelco is the world's biggest copper miner and Chile supplies about a quarter of the world's red metal.

China's commodity imports for July were resilient across sectors despite the continuing tariff tensions with the US, Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ Research, said in a note. The country's refined copper imports surged to 480,000 tonnes, the highest level this year. "Robust industrial activity, grid expansion, and ongoing energy transition supported imports. We see imports increasing following the US's exemption of refined copper from the 50% tariffs. Copper concentrate shipments were also strong, reaching a three-month high as smelters increased purchases," Hynes added.

China's imports of unwrought copper and copper ores rose in July from June. "This indicates robust demand as well as consistently high metal production, both of which are surprising," Thu Lan Nguyen, head of FX and commodity research at Commerzbank, said in a report. "One might have expected that the recent threat of US tariffs on unprocessed copper would have led to more of these flowing to the US in advance. (However, the tariffs did not materialize, or only for a small group of copper products)," Nguyen added.

At 1944 IST, on the MCX, the August futures contract of:
-–ALUMINIUM was at INR 253.95 a kg, up 0.4%
–-Copper was at INR 885.20 a kg, up 0.5%

–-LEAD was at INR 180.90 a kg, down 0.1%
–-ZINC was at INR 269.05 a kg, up 0.2%

Trading levels for the day on the MCX:
--Aluminium contract seen at INR 250.80-INR 258.00
--Copper contract seen at INR 873.20-INR 896.00
--Lead contract seen at INR 179.60-INR 182.00
--Zinc contract seen at INR 265.60-INR 274.10

End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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