"Copper's in favour because there's a perception there's not going to be that much around soon," a metals dealer said. Three-month London Metal Exchange-traded copper leapt about $50 over the last LME close on December 23 to $4,500/$4,510 a tonne.
With three LME outcry sessions remaining this year, three-month copper prices are up 43 percent so far in 2005.
The latest gains followed firmer closings on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, where the spot December contract, which expires after the next session, set a new record for copper at $2.29 a lb., ($5,049.24 a tonne).
However, Shanghai copper futures which closed up on Tuesday after climbing to record highs for the fourth straight session, were lower on Wednesday.
Shanghai's most active March contract was 150 yuan down at 41,780 yuan ($5,175) a tonne after hitting an all-time high of 42,260 yuan in intrude trading on Tuesday.
Concerns over the ability of the world's producers to keep enough copper found in everything from toilet taps to computers in the world supply pool were underscored by news that contract workers at Chile's Codelco, the world's largest producer, threatened to go on strike unless they were paid a bonus tied to copper prices. Codelco produced 1.8 million tonnes of copper last year, against world production of around 16 million tonnes. In other metals, three-month aluminium gained $9 to $2,285/$2,290 a tonne, bringing the contract near its 22-year peak of $2,289.
Shanghai aluminium futures were mixed with the most active March contract down 10 yuan at 19,520 yuan a tonne. Three-month zinc was down 50 cents to $1,880.50/$1,881.50 a tonne.
The contract last week hit $1,898 a tonne, it's highest since March 1989. Three-month lead was flat at $1,110/$1,111 a tonne, and three-month nickel was unchanged at $13,575/$13,600 a tonne. Three-month tin was also flat at $6,525/$6,575 a tonne.