London Metal Exchange copper for delivery in three months added as much as 0.9 percent to $8,650 ton, and stood at $8,570 at 4:32 p.m. Singapore time. The contract rose to a record $8,880 a ton on April 17 as workers at Codelco, the world’s largest producer, went on strike.

July-delivery copper on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed as much as 790 yuan, or 1.2 percent, to 64,990 yuan ($9,286) a ton, before closing at 64,140 yuan.

Aluminum traded 0.5 percent lower at $3,061 a ton, even as traders and analysts including Barclays Capital’s Gayle Berry expect the metal to outperform other industrial metals next year.

Aluminum may average $4,500 a ton in 2009, Berry said at a conference in Beijing yesterday. The metal, used in the production of automobiles and aircraft, has risen 28 percent so far this year, averaging $2,826 a ton, as supplies were constrained by energy shortages amid rising Chinese demand, the world’s largest.

The global aluminum market has undergone a “fundamental shift” in supply and demand dynamics, Deutsche Bank AG analysts wrote in an April 18 report.

The cost of producing primary aluminum has increased, as a result of higher energy, alumina and bauxite prices, as well as the currency appreciation of producer countries, wrote Deutsche analysts, led by London-based Michael Lewis.