Trafigura, IXM caught in Comex copper short squeeze as prices hit record

By Julian Luk, Pratima Desai, Siyi Liu and Eric Onstad

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Commodity traders Trafigura and IXM are seeking physical copper to cover large bearish positions on the CME exchange, where U.S. copper futures surged to record highs on Wednesday, five sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.

A short squeeze occurred as parties who bet on lower prices were forced to either buy back their positions at a loss or deliver physical copper to close them out.

U.S. Comex copper May futures hit a record peak of $5.18 a lb and was last trading down 0.6% at $4.93 at 1443 GMT, gaining 28% so far this year and 14% in the last week.

Trafigura said: "Trafigura is one of the largest physical suppliers of copper to North America and given the premium in this market we are shipping larger quantities of the metal to Comex."

IXM, owned by China's CMOC Group, declined to comment. The CME did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Julian Luk, Pratima Desai, Siyi Liu and Eric Onstad, Editing by Veronica Brown and Jane Merriman)