China metals mixed; upbeat data propels LME copper

SYDNEY, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Shanghai base metals futures turned mixed in late Asian hours on Thursday with better-than-expected China economic data coming in just before the market close, which pushed up LME copper. The fourth-quarter data underpinned a rally in London Metal Exchange copper, though failed to push the Shanghai contract into positive territory. * SHFE COPPER: The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down 0.24 percent at 53,670 yuan ($8,340.46) a tonne. * LME COPPER: Three-month copper on the LME gained 0.36 percent to $7,060 a tonne, reversing losses from the previous session. * CHINA GROWTH: China Q4 GDP 6.8 percent year-on-year compared with a forecast of 6.7 percent. Analysts polled by Reuters expected the world’s second-largest economy to have grown 6.7 percent in the October-December quarter from a year ago. * FORCE MAJEURE: Turquoise Hill Resources said Oyu Tolgoi, a copper and gold mine in the southern Gobi Desert, has declared force majeure in connection with customer contracts for concentrate due to a protest by Chinese coal transporters in the Ganqimaodu Border Zone. * BHP: BHP’s copper output jumped 20 percent to 429,000 tonnes in the quarter to end-December helped by a rise in production from its Escondida copper mine in Chile. * SHFE ALUMINIUM: ShFE aluminium finished down 0.10 percent at 14,620 a tonne. LME aluminium was showing a modest loss at $2,191 a tonne. * ALCOA: Aluminium producer Alcoa Corp reported a bigger quarterly loss on Wednesday, hurt by the closure and divestiture of some smelting assets. * COPPER BOOST: Chile’s state copper commission, Cochilco, on Wednesday raised its estimated 2018 average price for the metal to $3.06 per pound from its previous forecast of $2.95 per pound, pointing to the potential for global supply disruptions in the coming year. * LEAD SURPLUS: The global lead market showed a surplus of 15,600 tonnes in November after a deficit of 11,100 tonnes in October, data from the Lisbon-based International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) showed on Wednesday. : LEAD PRICES: Despite the shift to a surplus, ShFE lead closed 1.20 percent firmer at 19,330 yuan a tonne, while LME lead was 0.3 percent stronger at $2,556.