By Mai Nguyen
Oct 19 (Reuters) - Copper prices rose on Tuesday, buoyed bydecades-low supplies and an extreme shortage of readilyavailable metal in exchange warehouses.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose1.5% to $10,351 a tonne by 0703 GMT, while the most-tradedNovember copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 0.2% at 75,810 yuan ($11,834.77) a tonne.
LME cash copper was at a record high $1,103.50-a-tonnepremium over the three-month contract, compared to $55just a week earlier, indicating tight nearby inventories.
"There seems to really be no copper around. (Trading)volumes have been monster, but with spreads this tight, somepeople are too frightened to get involved as there is too muchat stake," said commodities broker Anna Stablum of MarexSpectron.
"For once, we are actually discounting macro here and justlooking at micro."
On-warrant LME copper inventories plunged to14,150 tonnes on Friday, their lowest since 1998, before risingto 21,050 tonnes, with one entity controlling between 50% and79% of LME copper warrants , LME data showed.
A weaker dollar also made greenback-priced metals cheaper toholders of other currencies, and a Peruvian communitythreatening to block a key mining road used by MMG's Las Bambas copper mine also supported prices.
(Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu
and Rashmi AichMessaging: mai.nguyen.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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