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May 7 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs on Wednesday hiked its quarterly copper price forecast, citing de-escalation in trade tensions and resilient Chinese copper demand that will likely continue to support prices in the coming months.

"We upgrade our 2Q/3Q price forecast to $9,330/$9,150/t from $8,620/$8,370 previously," the bank said in a note.

High U.S. copper imports are expected to draw down stocks outside the U.S. for the remainder of the second quarter, tightening the London Metal Exchange's forward spreads and discouraging new speculative short positions, the bank said.

Goldman Sachs said China's copper demand has stayed firm in 2025, mostly because of strong exports. As exports start to weaken, the bank expects demand to stay solid in the second quarter, but slow down in the third.

The bank's baseline forecast is for a significant slowdown in global copper demand in the second half of the year, with an imminent decision on U.S. Section 232 tariffs.

Using the 232 provision, U.S. President Donald Trump in February ordered a probe into possible tariffs on copper imports to rebuild U.S. production of the metal.

However, if the decision is delayed to late 2025, it could keep copper trade flows disrupted and cause a supply crunch outside the U.S. in the second half, especially in China, the bank said.

In the longer term, the bank says the copper market will move into a supply deficit in 2026, driven by strong demand from electrification-related sectors and limited growth in mining.

This should push prices from an expected low of $9,000 a ton in October 2025 to more than $10,500 a ton by the end of 2026, it added.

Benchmark three-month copper CMCU3 on the LME was trading at $9,438 a metric ton at 1347 GMT, after hitting $9,582, its highest since April 3, in early Asian trading hours. MET/L

(Reporting by Brijesh Patel and Anjana Anil in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heavens and Jan Harvey)

((Brijesh.Patel1@thomsonreuters.com; Ph no. +91 9590227221;))