Copper bounced to its highest in about six weeks on Monday as investors hoped that easing of lockdowns and factory restarts would revive metals demand hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Industrial metals prices rose along with stock markets, which also took heart from further stimulus measures announced by Japan.
The Bank of Japan pledged to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds, while in Europe top carmaker Volkswagen resumed work at its biggest factory in Wolfsburg, Germany.
"Chinese factories have been resuming operations and now we have some European plants also resuming operations, so if everything goes to plan and we have seen the peak of the lockdowns, we should have likewise seen the trough in metals demand," said analyst Carsten Menke at Julius Baer in Zurich.
But the risk remains that after lockdowns are lifted economies may be slow to recover or even that a second wave of infections could emerge, he added.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose as much as 2.5% to $5,269 a tonne, its highest since March 17, before paring gains to $5,199 by 1700 GMT, a rise of 1.2%.
LME aluminium inventories keep piling up, rising to 1,336,775 tonnes, the highest since Jan. 16 and up 38% over the past six weeks, LME data showed.
LME aluminium shed 0.5% to $1,507.
The net speculative short position of LME lead has grown to 23% of open interest, the highest so far this year, according to estimates by broker Marex Spectron.
China's Yunnan province will set aside 1 billion yuan to help businesses stockpile 800,000 tonnes of base metals. China is the world's biggest consumer of metals and accounts for around half of global copper consumption. Total imports of copper concentrate into China in March edged up 1.03% to 1.78 million tonnes year-on-year, as the country boosted imports from alternative sources amid a slump in shipments from top suppliers Peru and Chile.
China's nickel ore imports in March fell 42.3% to a 25-month low from a year ago. LME nickel edged down 0.1% to $12,240 a tonne after touching $12,595, its strongest since March 13, zinc climbed 1.5% to $1,911, lead rose 1.4% to 1,639.50 and tin jumped 3.9% to a two-week high of $15,475.
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