London copper prices bounced back on Tuesday, with the market rising more than one per cent as low stockpiles and technicals underpinned the market, although lean growth in top consumer China limited the gains.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.1 per cent at $6,258 a tonne, as of 0419 GMT, and the most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange added 0.3 per cent to 49,140 yuan ($7,358.16) a tonne.

Headline stocks of copper in LME-registered warehouses gained 1,525 tonnes to 257,200 tonnes, but were still at their lowest since January. There was additional support for the copper market stemming from expectations of output disruption.

“Copper held up relatively well, as the possibility of supply disruption in Chile was back in the headlines,” ANZ said in a note.

“Workers at BHP's Escondida copper mine rejected the company's first formal wage offer. The two parties are expected to head back to the negotiating table later this week.”

LME copper is poised to break a resistance at $6,260 per tonne and rise more towards $6,370, as suggested by its wave pattern and a retracement analysis, according to Wang Wang Tao, Reuters analyst for commodities and energy technicals.

China's economy expanded at a slower pace in the second quarter as Beijing's efforts to contain debt hurt activity, while June factory output growth weakened to a two-year low in a worrying sign for investment and exporters as a trade war with the United States intensified.

China's commerce ministry had said on Monday it had filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization regarding Washington's proposed tariff list on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods on July 16.

Copper speculators switched to a net short position of 12,919 contracts, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had said last week, the weakest position since December 2016.

China's aluminium producers are responding to tighter supply conditions by boosting output, data showed. China's June output rose 0.8 per cent to 2.83 million tonnes, which on a daily basis was the highest since June 2017, according to Reuters' calculations based on official data.

Shanghai zinc futures lost 2.4 per cent and lead dived 2 per cent on worries over Washington-Beijing trade war curbing demand.

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