Copper claws up from 12-week lows on bargain hunting

LONDON: Copper recovered from 12-week lows on Wednesday on bargain hunting and consumer buying, but sentiment was still fragile due to persistent fears about the prospect of trade conflicts hitting economic growth.

Tin tumbled to the lowest in nearly six months on concerns about growing supply.

Underlying supply/demand fundamentals were largely healthy in most industrial metals, but prices had been undermined by tit-for-tat trade skirmishes, analysts said.

"These losses are purely from financial market fears and it's hard to say when that will bottom. From a fundamental perspective, I don't have any worries at the current time," said Colin Hamilton, director of commodities research at BMO.

"There will be a lot of focus on the China PMIs coming at the weekend to see how resilient China has remained in the face of the growing trade concerns," he added, referring to purchasing managers' index reports largely followed by investors to gauge the health of the economy.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange  dropped as low as $6,667 a tonne, its lowest since April 4, but moved out of the red and was unchanged at $6,713 by 1002 GMT.

* ALUMINIUM: LME aluminium gained 0.9 percent to $2,178 a tonne after hitting an 11-week low of $2,135 on Tuesday.

"We wonder if the move was sparked by the news that Canada is preparing steel quotas. Whilst not mentioning aluminium, it discussed anti-dumping measures," Alastair Munro at broker Marex Spectron said in a note. Canada is a leading aluminium producer.

* NICKEL: LME nickel dropped 1.2 percent to $14,610 a tonne when Philippine miners sought to lift a ban on new large-scale mining projects after the state removed restrictions on fresh smaller ventures.

* TIN: LME tin dropped 1.3 percent to $19,845 a tonne after touching $19,770, the weakest since Dec. 29.

Traders said markets were well supplied with material from Indonesia, which reported recently that refined tin exports surged by 79 percent in May.

* CHINA: The impact of trade tensions with the United States knocked equities in China, the world's biggest metals consumer, and elsewhere in the world, while China's currency also slipped.

* CHINA DATA: But China's manufacturing sector showed slower growth in the second quarter, a private survey showed, as export orders slipped.