Copper futures are climbing on thin trading volumes and concerns about copper-supply disruptions.

The most actively traded contract, for December delivery, was recently up 6.45 cents, or 1.6%, at $4.1740 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The front-month contract, for September delivery, was up 6.65 cents, or 1.6%, at $4.1555 a pound.

Low trading volumes aided copper's push higher, as individual trades have a greater impact on prices when volumes are thin.

Copper-trading volumes eased as many European traders take off the last week of summer while U.S. traders are also enjoying time off ahead of the Labor Day holiday.

"It doesn't take much of an aberration to push the market higher," said Sterling Smith, analyst with Country Hedging.

Workers at Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s (FCX) Grasberg mine may strike as contract negotiations appear deadlocked, according to news reports. Freeport is the world's largest listed copper-mining company.

Copper futures are drawing strength from the news as the last Grasberg strike, in early July, deprived the company of 35 million pounds of copper.

Chile copper production fell 18% in July, from the same period last year, to 373,498 metric tons. Chile is the world's largest copper producer and accounts for about one third of the world's copper output.

The January to July copper output is down 4.2% year-to-year to 2,951,372 tons.

Copper prices are also stronger after a stream of better-than-expected U.S. economic data snuffed out talk of an impending recession for now, but "the odds that this streak could be sustained is unlikely," said Edward Meir, base-metals analyst with MF Global. He says he is wary of betting on higher metals prices at current levels as "we still have some ways to go before the current soft patch plays itself out."

-By Tatyana Shumsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3095;

tatyana.shumsky@dowjones.com

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