MELBOURNE: London copper was stuck in the summer doldrums on Tuesday after a glimmer of an improvement at smaller Chinese factories in July was offset by modest reports on global manufacturing elsewhere, dampening optimism over demand.
Growth eased in the euro zone last month, with factories in China, Japan and elsewhere in Asia offering only crumbs of comfort, surveys indicated, even as British manufacturers slammed on the brakes last month after the Brexit vote.
A summer slowdown in the northern hemisphere, weaker oil prices and looming oversupply were also weighing on metals, analysts said.
"The weaker energy market will continue to weigh on the wider complex. Investors will also remain cautious leading into this week's jobs data release in the U.S.," said ANZ in a research report.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange traded flat at $4,885 a tonne by 0254 GMT, after a 0.9 percent daily loss from the previous session, when copper at one point hit the highest since July 22 at $4,965 a tonne.
U.S. crude tumbled below $40 per barrel on Monday for the first time since April, as oil prices settled down nearly 4 percent on heightened worries of a crude glut despite peak summer fuel demand.
U.S. manufacturing activity eased in July amid shrinking order backlogs and declining employment, while an unexpected drop in construction spending in June suggested second-quarter economic growth was probably even weaker than reported last week.
In news, police in the Chinese city of Kunming said on Monday they would prosecute 20 people involved with the Fanya Metals Exchange, which authorities and investors say was a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
Also, a crackdown against pollution in China will mostly affect production of nickel ore, refined nickel and lead ore, said BMI Research in a report.
"We forecast Chinese lead output growth to average 0.3 percent annually during 2016-2020, compared to 6.0 percent during 2011-2015."
Elsewhere, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday warned mining companies to strictly follow tighter environmental rules or shut down, saying the Southeast Asian nation could survive without a mining industry.
The Southeast Asian nation is China's biggest supplier of nickel ore. The crackdown and prices that hit 12-year lows in February have hampered production in the country, helped to boost nickel prices by 22 percent this year.
LME nickel rose 0.3 percent to $10,770 a tonne, near 11-month highs of 10,900 hit on July 21.
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