SHFE copper contracts remain steady

The most actively traded copper contract, for January delivery, closed at 51,490 yuan ($8,388) per ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) Friday, the same price as the day before, with investors keeping a wait-and-see attitude ahead of the much-anticipated Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Trading volumes for the SHFE January copper contract added 10,822 lots from Thursday to Friday's 185,294 lots.

However, a rise in copper imports by China in October and good US jobs data helped to support global copper prices.

The benchmark three-month copper contract on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was last bid at $7,165 per ton, an increase of 0.28 percent from the price at close of trading Thursday of $7,145 per ton.

"October was a holiday month [in China], so the fact that imports were only down slightly [month-on-month] was quite impressive, and they have increased very strongly on a year-on-year basis," a report by Reuters Friday quoted Barclays analyst Gayle Berry as saying.

Berry said demand for copper from Chinese buyers is strong, with importers using copper as collateral for short-term loans due to concerns over a possible cash squeeze in Chinese markets, Reuters reported.

Some market watchers expect that China's Third Plenary Session could help boost bulk commodity prices due to the possibility of fresh infrastructure policies, with iron ore, steel and thermal coal set to benefit, according to a report e-mailed to the Global Times Friday by Australian bank ANZ.

In addition, "steel mills are looking to restock but are taking a wait-and-see approach with current prices being viewed as fractionally high. Falling temperatures in China have led to strong demand for thermal coal," the report also said.