LME copper, which fell 0.7% on Monday, is up 22% over the past three months but is well below the record high of $14,527.50 on January 29.“The tariff announcement this weekend is positive for metals markets as it is better for China,” said Alastair Munro, senior base metals strategist at broker Marex. Some investors believe the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs will benefit China, culminating in a rally in Chinese stock markets.
Munro noted that there were signs that physical demand in China is also picking up, with the Yangshan copper premium, which reflects demand for copper imported into China, rising 60% to $53 per tonne on Tuesday.
The most active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.8% to close day trading at 101,510 yuan ($14,728.88) per tonne on the first trading day after the nine-day Chinese New Year holiday. Copper inventories in LME-registered warehouses rose a further 1,350 tonnes to 243,175, data showed on Tuesday, the highest level since March 2025, after rising 71% so far this year.
“What will be crucial is that we start to see those stocks start to disappear, maybe not this week or next week, but in the next three, four weeks,” Munro said. LME nickel rose 4.1% to $17,995 a tonne, the highest price since February 12, when Indonesian officials considered revoking the environmental permit of PT QMB New Energy Materials, a nickel and cobalt joint venture led by Chinese gem.
Among other metals, LME aluminum rose 0.4% to $3,101 per tonne, zinc rose 0.9% to $3,383, lead rose 0.5% to $1,960.50 and tin rose 5.2% to $50,200 after hitting $50,510, the highest price in almost two weeks.
($1 = 6.8919 Chinese Yuan Renminbi)
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