Asian copper sellers tightened spreads on scrap because of the narrowed arbitrage between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and London Metal Exchange (LME).

Bare bright sellers reduced discounts to 45-50¢/lb under the CME July contract from 50-55¢/lb last week. Spreads on #1 berry/candy came in at 55-60¢/lb under from 59-64¢/lb while #2 copper scrap tightened at 65-75¢/lb under from last week's discounts of 70-80¢/lb.

Tighter spreads brought exporters back into the market with the arbitrage narrowing between CME and LME. The decreased arbitrage has made Europe, Southeast Asia and India prices competitive with domestic prices.

The CME July copper contract settled relatively flat as it moved 0.75¢/lb higher at $4.68/lb on Thursday. The exchange was up a second consecutive day and was down 0.4¢/lb from a week earlier.

The LME three-month price fell on Thursday and has dropped 13 of the past 15 days. The exchange was down by 0.8pc to a two-week low of $9,461.50/metric tonne (t) ($4.29/lb) on Thursday.

The US and China's agreement on the temporary hold for tariffs on each other ends on 12 August. The US lowered tariffs from 145pc to 30pc on 14 May and China cut its tariffs on American imports from 125pc to 10pc. Participants were concerned that a new trade deal may not get done by the deadline and an increase in tariffs may be implemented.