HANOI: Copper prices rose on Wednesday to a 9-1/2-year high as low inventories and a bright outlook for demand lent support, but analysts expected the rally to slow down.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 1.5% to $9,342 a tonne, its highest since August 2011, but eased later in the session to trade 0.5% higher at $9,256 a tonne by 0315 GMT.

The most-traded April copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced 0.8% to 68,110 yuan ($10,541.71) a tonne, having hit its highest since August 2011 at 68,880 yuan a tonne earlier in the session.

LME copper inventories were at their lowest since December 2005 at 73,450 tonnes, while Yangshan bonded copper premiums rose to $77 a tonne, its highest since August 2020, suggesting better demand for imported copper into top consumer China.

FUNDAMENTALS

LME aluminium rose 0.2% to $2,152 a tonne, nickel fell 0.5% to $19,255 a tonne and zinc dropped 0.7% to $2,835 a tonne.

ShFE nickel dropped 1.8% to 142,600 yuan a tonne, zinc declined 1.9% to 21,385 yuan a tonne and lead fell 1.3% to 15,690 yuan a tonne.

The global refined copper market showed a 77,000 tonne deficit in November compared with a 145,000-tonne shortfall in October, International Copper Study Group data showed.