Shanghai Futures Exchange copper finished up 1.6 percent at 37,940 yuan ($5,841) a tonne on Thursday. ShFE zinc rallied about 2 percent, nickel and tin by nearly 1 percent. Reflecting subdued consumer demand, premiums for copper stored in bonded warehouses in Shanghai fell by $5 to $82.50 a tonne, the weakest since January 6, Reuters data showed.
Declines in China's foreign trade will ease after March, though trade conditions are expected to be more severe this year than in 2015, a spokesman at the Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday.
In other metals, the global market for refined nickel fell to a 8,100-tonne deficit in January from a small surplus in December, data from the International Nickel Study Group showed on Thursday, signalling that rock bottom prices are finally crimping output.
Nickel's freefall may have halted as output cuts move the chronically oversupplied market into deficit, but prices are unlikely to recover sharply unless more loss-making mines close.