Copper Up on Supply Restrictions, Weak Dollar

A weakened dollar and a production outage at the world’s second-largest copper mine in Indonesia have boosted copper prices. Reuters reported three-month copper prices on the London Metal Exchange rose as high as $7,525 per tonnne May 22 – the highest level since April 12.

Barclays analyst Gayle Berry explained that  copper investors are watching the Indonesian mine outage closely. Grasberg, run by Arizona-based Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX), halted production May 15 after a tunnel collapsed,  killing 28 workers. So far, the company is not on track to restart its operations and there are concerns that the accident could lead to labour negotiation issues in the future.

Also supporting copper prices are disruptions from other mines including the April landslide at Rio Tinto’s (NYSE:RIO) Bingham Canyon mine in Utah, and the shutdown several copper smelters in India and China, cutting output.

In New York, copper futures for July delivery changed little at $3.3445 a pound, according to Bloomberg.