BEIJING, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Copper prices struggled to find momentum on Monday, as global supply worries countered demand uncertainty stemming from economic slowdown worries and China's stance on COVID-19 curbs.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange gained as much as 0.7% before giving up the gains to trade at $7,535 a tonne by 0724 GMT.
The most-traded November copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.2% to 63,080 yuan ($8,759.29) a tonne.
Inventories at warehouses of LME, COMEX, ShFE and Shanghai-bonded warehouses totalled 253,000 tonnes last week, marking a weekly drop of 12,000 tonnes, according to a report by CITIC Futures.
Total copper production in Chile, the world's top producer of the metal, fell 10.2% in August to 415,500 tonnes.
Tight supplies, better demand in China, and an open import
arbitrage lifted the Yangshan import copper premium
But uncertainty around demand prevailed over top consumer China's zero-COVID policy. Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the country's COVID-19 stance when he kicked off the Communist Party Congress on Sunday, against market expectations of an easing in such curbs.
Imminent changes in the current COVID-19 policy are not expected, UBS Investment Bank Research said in a note, adding that it expected restrictions to be eased significantly after the National People's Congress in March 2023.
Stock markets in China and Hong Kong also slid.
Meanwhile, rising fears of a global recession amid aggressive monetary policy tightening also curbed copper's gains. Copper is often used as an economic indicator.
Among other metals, ShFE aluminium slid 0.9% to 18,435 yuan a tonne and nickel slipped 0.3% to 181,810 yuan a tonne, while zinc was unchanged at 24,625 yuan a tonne.
LME aluminium lost 1.4% to $2,274.50 a tonne, zinc declined 1.2% to $2,905.50 a tonne, and lead was flat at $2,041 a tonne.
For the top stories in metals and other news, click or ($1 = 7.2015 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton; editing by Uttaresh.V and Subhranshu Sahu)