MELBOURNE, Sept 3 (Reuters) – London copper was sitting at its lowest in 10 days on Monday as jitters over renewed trade tensions between the United States and China weighed on risk appetite and pushed up the dollar. FUNDAMENTALS: * London Metal Exchange copper traded flat at $5,976 a tonne by 0147 GMT, having earlier slipped to $5,952.50, its weakest since Aug. 23. Prices on Friday fell 1.5 percent to take the monthly fall in August to 5.2 percent. It was the biggest monthly drop in two years and the third monthly decline in a row. * Shanghai Futures Exchange copper fell 1 percent to 48,100 yuan ($7,037) a tonne. Trade could be subdued due to a U.S. market holiday on Monday. * LME nickel prices traded at $12,790 a tonne, having dipped to the weakest since late January, and extending Friday’s 3.7 percent slide. * CAIXIN: China’s manufacturing activity grew at the slowest pace in more than a year in August, with export orders shrinking for a fifth month and employers cutting more staff, a private survey showed on Monday. * TRADE DISPUTE: China is still determined to reform and wants to work with all parties to build an open world economy, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Sunday, reiterating Beijing’s message amid a bitter trade war with Washington.
* CHINA AUTOS: China will strictly prevent ‘haphazard investment and redundant development’ in the automobile industry, apparently referring to proposed rules on automakers’ investments in new capacity.
* COPPER: Copper production at Codelco, Chile’s state-owned copper mining company, rose 2 percent in the first half of 2018 to 813,000 tonnes, Chief Executive Nelson Pizarro said on Friday.
* CHILE MINING: Chile’s state copper commission Cochilco expects the country’s mining industry to attract a total investment of $65.75 billion spread over 44 operations over the next 10 years, it said in a statement on Friday.
* INVESTORS: Hedge funds and money managers trimmed their net short positions in COMEX copper futures and options, in the week to Aug. 28 U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed on Friday. * ALUMINIUM: China’s Ministry of Commerce has called domestic aluminium foil makers to a meeting in Beijing on Monday to discuss an anti-dumping probe launched by Mexico, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.
