Copper Futures Advance to One-Week High on Renewed Global-Supply Concerns

Copper futures rose to a one-week high on renewed speculation that global use will outpace production.

Supplies will trail demand by 1 million metric tons in the next two years, UniCredit SpA said today. Prices reached a 30- month high of $4.0875 a pound on Nov. 11 as inventories tracked by the London Metal Exchange dropped to the lowest level since October 2009.

“We are starting working on the fundamentals again,” said Michael K. Smith, the president of T&K Futures & Options in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Copper may top $4 by the end of the year, he said.

Copper futures for March delivery climbed 5.2 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $3.8195 at 12:17 p.m. on the Comex in New York. Earlier, the price reached $3.837, the highest since Nov. 22. The metal headed for the fifth straight monthly gain.

“Among the industrial metals, copper is our favorite,” Jochen Hitzfeld, an analyst at UniCredit in Munich, said in a report. The supply shortfall forecast for 2011 and 2012 will reduce stockpiles to “near historical lows,” UniCredit said.

This month, LME inventories fell 3.5 percent, the ninth straight drop.

Copper for delivery in three months climbed $154.25, or 1.9 percent, to $8,374.25 a ton （$3.80 a pound） on the LME. The price reached a record $8,966 on Nov. 11.

Zinc, aluminum, tin, nickel and lead also gained on the LME.