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The most-active June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was up 0.3% at 71,641 yuan ($10,666.42).
Copper prices fell to their lowest in almost eight months on Monday, as tightening lockdowns in China stoked worries about demand, with a stronger dollar further weighing on the market.
“Hedge funds are turning increasingly bearish on the copper market amid mounting evidence that global manufacturing activity is starting to stall,” wrote Reuters columnist Andy Home.
“Bears now outnumber bulls on the CME copper contract for the first time since May 2020, when the copper price was just starting to recover from the first wave of covid-19 lockdowns.”
China’s April copper cathode output fell on both a monthly and annual basis, state-backed research house Antaike said on Tuesday, as maintenance and the covid-19 outbreak in the country curbed smelters from producing more metal.
On the supply side, Peru’s government on Tuesday failed to reach an agreement with a group of indigenous communities whose protests have halted operations at MMG Ltd’s massive Las Bambas copper mine.
(With files from Reuters)
