Copper rises on China buying pre-holiday

By Solomon Cefai

SINGAPORE, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Copper prices rose on Tuesday, as strong demand in top consumer China pushed the metal back towards its record high.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.4% at $14,720 a metric ton by 0700 GMT, rising for a sixth straight session.

The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 1.24% to 111,320 yuan ($16,615.67) a ton, also helped by renewed speculative support.

"Chinese are buying ahead of holidays and smelter shutdowns," Sandeep Daga, head of research at Metal Intelligence Centre, said. The country's upcoming holidays are on September 25 to 27 and from October 1 to 7.

The Yangshan copper premium , a gauge of Chinese appetite for imported copper, fell to $119 a ton on Monday, but was still 65% above the start of the month.

Low inventories in China are also supporting prices. "Chinese inventories are quite low as import and output fell together," Daga said.

Traders were awaiting a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week for signals on trade ties and the global economic outlook.

The gains marked a rebound after a brief pullback in a broader rally over recent months. Prices had drawn support from concern around a possible US tariff on refined copper imports that pulled more metal into US warehouses.

Copper hit a record high of $14,875 a ton on September 10 on tight supply outside the United States, before easing after a report said the White House had yet to decide on the tariff.

Among LME metals, aluminium added 0.29%, zinc dipped 0.24%, lead dipped 0.15%, nickel gained 0.72% and tin ticked 0.09% higher.

On the SHFE, aluminium dipped 0.27%, zinc lost 0.6%, lead added 0.18%, nickel gained 0.97% and tin added 0.47%.

($1 = 6.6997 Chinese yuan renminbi)