London copper prices rose on Friday as a U.S. infrastructure deal raised hopes of better demand for metals in the coming years, although the gains were capped by weak consumption.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 advanced 0.4% to $9,453 a tonne by 0621 GMT, while the most-traded August copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 eased 0.2% to 68,890 yuan ($10,657.49) a tonne.

U.S. President Joe Biden embraced a bipartisan Senate deal to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure projects, building roads, bridges and highways in an expanded effort to stimulate the American economy.

Copper is widely used in infrastructure projects.

“Biden announced that he agreed to the infrastructure plan….but fundamentally, the current traditional peak season for copper is ending,” Huatai Futures said in a report.

“On the supply side, treatment charges continue to rise and the impact of the state reserves release are superimposed.”

China’s top copper smelters set their floor treatment and refining charges for the third quarter at $55 per tonne and 5.5 cents per lb, up from $53/5.3 cents in the first quarter, sources said.

FUNDAMENTALS

Indonesia is considering a plan to restrict construction of smelters producing nickel pig iron or ferronickel to optimise its limited nickel ore reserves for higher-value products, a government official said on Thursday.

Yunnan Tin 000960.SZ will cease production at its two main smelters in Yunnan and Hunan provinces, with a combined output of 76,500 tonnes, for maintenance which could last 45 days, the International Tin Association said on Thursday.

State-backed Chinese research house Antaike said it expected aluminium to be the top-performing base metal in the second half of this year due to supply constraints and recovering demand.

ShFE nickel SNICv1 jumped 2.6% to 138,120 yuan a tonne, ShFE aluminium SAFcv1 advanced 0.7% to 18,880 yuan a tonne and LME nickel CMNI3 rose 0.5% to $18,500 a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; editing by Uttaresh.V)