July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Copper futures rose as much as 3.6 percent to a record in Shanghai on concern that demand from wire and cable makers is exceeding supply in China, the world's largest consumer of the metal.

The metal is headed for its biggest gain since Aug. 12 after UBS AG, the world's biggest asset manager, said in a July 22 report that global consumption will outpace supply this year and on speculation the stronger yuan will encourage imports by China. Copper futures in London and New York rose last week to their highest in at least 16 years.

``Demand from Chinese processors will pick up in late August as the summer season ends,'' said Gu Yuan, a trader at Shenzhen Star Futures Co., in a telephone interview. ``It will worsen the supply deficit and the price will go up more.''

Copper for delivery in September increased as much as 1,210 yuan to 34,570 yuan a metric ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. The contract rose 3.5 percent to 34,530 yuan at 11:29 a.m. local time.

China's economy grew 9.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on July 20, beating the median 9.2 percent gain forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Fixed-asset investment increased 25.4 percent to 3.29 trillion yuan in the first half after climbing 22.8 percent in the first quarter, the bureau said.

The expansion, the fastest of any major economy, has fueled demand for wires and cables to carry electricity to homes and factories in cities and rural areas.

Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased their net-long position in New York copper futures in the week ended July 19, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 16,877 contracts on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Washington-based commission said in its Commitments of Traders report.

A futures contract is an obligation to buy or sell a commodity at a set price for delivery by a specific date.

The world's biggest movers are based on changes in price or yield and are screened for the size of the market and amount of daily trading.

To contact the reporter for this story: Helen Yuan in Shanghai at hyuan@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 25, 2005 00:20 EDT