LONDON: Copper prices recovered on Monday as hopes of easing trade tensions between the United States and China and stronger Chinese imports of the industrial metal lifted sentiment.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange had gained 2.7 percent to USD10,800 a metric ton by 1411 GMT after dropping more than 3 percent on Friday when President Donald Trump threatened sharply higher tariffs on Chinese imports.
Meanwhile, on Comex after the New York open, copper jumped more than 5 percent to hit a session high of USD5.165 a lb or USD11,387 a ton.
Expectations of copper shortages due to supply disruptions in Indonesia, Chile and the Democratic Republic of Congo, prospects of US interest rate cuts and a weaker dollar have helped propel prices to 16-month highs at USD11,000 a ton last week.
Traders said optimism that Trump would scale back his rhetoric, as he has done before, and brighter prospects for demand in top consumer China were behind the higher copper prices.
China’s copper imports rose 14.1 percent in September from the previous month to 485,000 tons while its export growth bounced back as the country has been diversifying its export markets this year away from the United States.
Elsewhere, focus is on zinc stocks in LME registered warehouses which at 37,475 tons are down 70 percent since the middle of July and at their lowest since March 2023.
Concern about zinc supplies on the LME market pushed up the premium for the cash contract over the three-month forward to three-year highs at USD100 per ton. Three-month zinc rose 1.1 percent to USD3,034.
Undermining the idea of tight supplies are rising stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange. At 106,950 tons they have more than doubled since the middle of July.
In aluminium, traders said two companies holding large amounts of warrants - title documents conferring ownership - are behind the cash contract over the three-month forward flipping into a premium from a discount earlier this month.
Three-month aluminium added 0.5 percent to USD2,761, lead slipped 0.9 percent to USD2,002, tin ceded 0.8 percent to USD35,885 a ton and nickel retreated 0.4 percent to USD15,225 a ton.
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