Investing.com - Copper prices were higher in European trade on Wednesday, as a temporary power outage in Chile -- the world’s top copper producer -- largely overshadowed U.S. President Donald Trump's move to order a new probe into possible tariffs on imports of the red metal.

By 08:38 ET (13:38 GMT), benchmark copper futures on the London Metal Exchange had risen by 0.8% to $9,485.00 a ton.

Chile's power grid and copper mines were slowly coming back online on Wednesday morning following a widespread outage, Reuters reported, citing authorities in the country.

The blackout, which was attributed to a transmission failure in Chile’s northern region, first began in the mid-afternoon on Tuesday.

Much of Chile’s mining-rich north was left without power due to the outage, threatening global supplies.

Worries over a supply crunch helped traders largely look past Trump’s tariff threat. Trump said he was considering tariffs on copper imports, after he earlier this month announced 25% duties on steel and aluminum imports due to take effect on March 4.

Trump said the levies would be aimed at shoring up local copper production in the U.S., and will help curb China’s dominance of the market for a metal critical in everything from electric vehicles and consumer goods to military hardware.

Shares in Freeport-McMoran Copper (NYSE: FCX ) ticked higher in premarket U.S. trading on Wednesday, with analysts at Citi arguing that the Arizona-based miner may be the "big winner" from Trump's copper tariffs.

(Reuters contributed reporting.)