Copper eases on soft China data ahead of G20 meeting

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Copper prices eased on Friday after disappointing manufacturing data from top consumer China dented appetite ahead of a meeting of global leaders at a G20 meeting. China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to a 2016 low of 50 in November, missing market expectations and down from 50.2 in October. Meanwhile, all eyes will be on a planned meeting between U.S President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday to see whether they can find a way to calm the waters and make progress toward resolving differences that threaten the global economy. The tit-for-tat trade dispute has rattled global markets and sapped demand for base metals, in some cases overriding supportive factors such as falling stocks. “The Chinese PMI wasn’t really convincing ahead of the G20 summit,” said Commerzbank’s head of commodities research Eugen Weinberg. “The market is to a great extent discounting the chance of a breakthrough in talks between the U.S. and China over the weekend and the PMI just adds to the jitters.” Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 0.3 percent to $6,193 per tonne while aluminium slipped 0.1 percent to $1,938.50 tonnes. Aluminium in London and on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) was on track for its third straight month of declines. CHALCO SUPPLY CUTS: Aluminum Corp of China Ltd, 2600.HK, known as Chalco, is cutting output 47,000 tonnes or 12 percent of its output as Chinese aluminium prices sank to a fresh two-year low. ALUMINIUM: Norwegian metals maker Norsk Hydro expects global primary aluminium demand growth to slow next year and says it is being impacted “heavily” by an output slowdown at a key alumina plant in Brazil. ZINC SPREADS: Falling stocks pushed the premium for cash zinc to the three month price to $101 per tonne, its highest since 1998.  STOCKS: Inventories of zinc in LME-monitored warehouses are close to a 10-year-low of 88,600 tonnes. In warehouses monitored by ShFE, zinc stocks fell 25 percent from last Friday to 26,779 tonnes. CODELCO: Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, said mine output fell 3 percent in the first nine months of the year as ore grades fell sharply. STEEL: The U.S. administration is moving to moderate its steel trade tariffs but countries in Europe and beyond are loath to lower protections for their steelmakers as long as U.S.-China trade tensions prevail. OTHER METALS: Zinc added 0.9 percent to $2,494.50 per tonne, lead rose 2.1 percent to $1,971, tin inched 0.1 percent higher to $18,550, while nickel gained 0.1 percent to $11,065.