METALS-London copper dips as market awaits China data

Updates prices

By Ashitha Shivaprasad

Dec 30 (Reuters) - London copper prices slipped on Monday in thin trading while market participants await economic data from China, the world's biggest commodities consumer.

Three-month copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 0.7% at $8,916 a metric ton by 1635 GMT.

Strength in the U.S. dollar also pressured metals, making dollar-priced commodities more expensive for buyers holding other currencies. USD/

Trading volumes were low because of the coming New Year holiday and imminent release of Chinese PMI factory surveys on Tuesday.

"The trend for copper ultimately is a derivative of China's recovery, or lack thereof. I see some meaningful headwinds to the copper market because nothing really seems to be re-igniting China's economy," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.

Chinese policymakers hope policy support measures introduced late this year will bolster the property market, which is the biggest consumer of base metals. Beijing is also seeking to reduce the impact of an expected increase in U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.

"The other element that offers downside risks (to copper) is the change of government in the U.S. and the potential for a slower or even unwound green transition," Rodda added.

On a week-on-week basis copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 4.7% on Dec. 27.

In other metals, LME aluminium CMAl3 slipped 0.3% to $2,550 a ton, nickel CMNI3 rose 0.7% to $15,420, zinc CMZN3 lost 0.2% to $3,024.50, tin CMSN3 was up 1.8% at $29,240 and lead CMPB3 was down 0.8% at $1,954.

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(Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru
Editing by Barbara Lewis and David Goodman
)

((Ashitha.Shivaprasad@thomsonreuters.com;))

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