Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 2.2% at $13,155 a metric tonne by 1525 GMT, having touched its highest price since February 12 at $13,196.
LME copper, which fell 0.7% on Monday, has gained 22% over the past three months, but is down from a record high of $14,527.50 on January 29.
“The tariff announcement at the end of the week, it’s on a positive margin for metal markets because it’s better for China,” said Alastair Munro, senior base metals strategist at broker Marex. Some investors believe China will benefit from a US Supreme Court ruling striking down President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs, highlighted by a rally in Chinese stock markets.
Munro noted that there are also signs that physical demand in China is picking up, with the Yangshan copper premium, which reflects demand for copper imported into China, rising 60% to $53 a tonne on Tuesday.
The most active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.8% to close at 101,510 yuan ($14,728.88) a tonne on the first day of trading after China’s nine-day Lunar New Year break. Copper inventories in LME-registered warehouses rose another 1,350 tonnes to 243,175, data showed on Tuesday, the highest level since March 2025, up 71% so far this year.
“It’s important for us to start seeing those stocks start to dissipate, maybe not this week or next week, but in the next three, four weeks,” Munroe said.
LME nickel rose 4.1% to $17,995 a tonne, its strongest price since Feb. 12, as Indonesian officials considered revoking the environmental permit of PT QMB New Energy Materials, a nickel and cobalt joint venture led by China’s GEM.
Among other metals, LME aluminum was up 0.4% at $3,101 a tonne, zinc was up 0.9% at $3,383, lead was up 0.5% at $1,960.50 and tin was up 5.2% at $50,200, its strongest price in two weeks at $50,510.
($1 = 6.8919 Chinese Yuan Renminbi)
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