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CORRECTED-Copper relieves on subdued Chinese need and inventories jump

Copper relieved on Monday, pressured by suppressed demand in leading customer China and a. considerable upturn in deliveries to storage facilities approved by the. London Metal Exchange (LME) while some support was provided by a. softer dollar.

Criteria copper on the LME traded 0.1% lower at. $ 9,675 a metric ton in main rings. It has actually dropped 13% since. striking its May 20 record high above $11,100 on indications of need. weakness in China and elsewhere.

Funds are trading base (metals) versus the yo-yoing. dollar, one metals trader said, including that a meaningful upturn. in copper prices would require indications of much more powerful China. usage.

Copper stocks << CU-STX-SGH > in storage facilities monitored by. the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell last week, but still stand at. 322,910 lots compared with about 30,000 lots in January.

Stocks of copper << MCUSTX-TOTAL > in LME-approved storage facilities,. meanwhile, have jumped more than 60% to 167,825 lots since. mid-May, with the majority of the deliveries to Asian storage facilities coming. from China.

Absence of concern about products on the LME market lag. the record discount for money copper versus the three-month. agreement << CMCU0-3 >, presently around $135 a lot.

Also stressing for industrial metals is growing. protectionism, such as the European Union's plans to enforce. tariffs on electric vehicles made in China.

Provided the value of exports to China's economy, there. are growing issues around trade barriers and the hazard they. present to those exports in the future, Marex said in a note.

In other places, nickel fell to $17,100 a load for its. lowest because early April on LME stocks << MNISTX-TOTAL > that have. more than doubled to 90,906 heaps considering that November.

Nevertheless, Macquarie's Jim Lennon now expects a smaller sized. surplus of 117,000 loads this year for reasons consisting of more powerful. demand from stainless-steel mills.

Nickel was up 0.2% at $17,260 a ton.

In other metals, aluminium slipped 0.3% to $2,505 a. load, zinc acquired 0.5% to $2,857, lead was down. 0.1% at $2,188 and tin advanced 0.5% to $32,845.

(source: Reuters)