Supply reduction worries ease Copper fell on Friday

More than a week ago, the international copper market was supported
by supply disruptions from the three major copper mines.
However, in recent days, the strike at the Escondida copper mine in Chile, owned by BHP Billiton, has ended, and the dispute between Freeport and the Indonesian government has progressed, and the current strike at the Cerro Verde copper mine in Peru, owned by Freeport, has also ended
.

Freeport's Cerro Verde copper miners said Thursday night that striking workers voted to end nearly three weeks of strike and would resume work
Friday.
The strike halved
the mine's output.
ING noted in the report that production at Chile's Escondida copper mine has also resumed and there are signs that supply constraints at Freeport's Grasberg production facility in Indonesia will also ease
.
Commerzbank analysts said the supply problem was being eliminated
.

China's official manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs continued to expand strongly in March, hitting a five-year high and a three-year high respectively, mainly due to the simultaneous expansion of supply and demand, active production, recovery of market demand, and easing of cost pressure
.
Leading indicators show that China's economic recovery momentum is good, which is expected to extend into the second quarter
.

In other news, Mexico produced 42,222 tonnes of copper in January, up 20.
6%
from a year earlier, data released on Friday, according to data released by Mexico's National Institute of Statistics.
Chile's national copper company Codelco said Friday that copper production in 2016 was 1.
83 million tons, of which 1.
71 million tons were from wholly-owned mines, down 1.
4 percent
from a year earlier.

A technical analyst said LME copper could fall to the next support level of $5,774 after breaking above the $5,855 level, as the rally from the March 9 low of $5,652 has ended
.