A wave of copper purchases from China provided support for the metal over the past week, which has seen its price rise over 9% on Tuesday, and over 4% during the course of the week.
 
With China accounting for almost 40% of global copper demand, its recent buying has propped up the market, even as companies in the west are holding back. Adding further support to the price of copper, which climbed to their highest level in more than three weeks, was better-than-expected data released from the US yesterday. Orders placed with US factories rose in July by the most in four months and business activity expanded in August at a faster pace than forecast.
 
Conversely, a separate report published earlier this week showed that output by the biggest producer, Chile, declined 18% in July from a year earlier. The increase in demand from the two largest users of copper (the US being the second-largest) and a recent fall in supply have significantly helped to boost the price of the red metal. This morning, however, copper prices reversed their recent upward trend and dropped over 1.3% to $4.151 per pound, due to weak Chinese manufacturing PMI and export data.