Copper News - Sept 13, 2016 METALS-Copper hits three-week high on China data, Fed comments
* Strong Chinese data boosts copper after slide
* LME copper stocks fall 825 tonnes on Monday
* GRAPHIC-2016 metal returns: link.reuters.com/cag37s (Adds official prices)
By Jan Harvey
LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Copper hit a three-week high on Tuesday after Chinese economic data beat forecasts and as a dovish tone from a Federal Reserve official curbed speculation that a U.S. interest rate rise is imminent.
The metal recovered from the previous session's 12-week low after data released overnight showed factory output and retail sales in China, the world's biggest consumer of copper, grew faster than expected last month.
Concerns over the broader global economy were also calmed after Fed Governor Lael Brainard cautioned on Monday against raising U.S. interest rates too quickly, dampening speculation that an increase could come as early as next week.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.4 percent at $4,664 a tonne in official trading, after earlier hitting $4,692, the strongest since Aug. 24. In the previous session it hit its lowest since June 20 at $4,582.
"All the metals-intensive data from China was a lot better, so that clearly shows there is stability coming through," Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar said. "Also, copper inventories have not been rising in recent days."
"The Fed speaker Brainard also came out pretty dovish, and that helped risk-on sentiment," he said. "We're seeing that reflected across the LME with some risk appetite coming through."
LME copper stocks, which have more than doubled since the start of June, fell 825 tonnes on Monday, only their second drop since Aug. 19, exchange data showed.
LME zinc was up 0.3 percent in official trading at $2,269, while LME tin was 0.8 percent higher at $19,200 a tonne. Aluminium, which hit a three-month low of $1,564 a tonne on Monday, rose 0.4 percent to $1,574 a tonne.
"Aluminium has come under pressure, falling almost 6 percent over the past two weeks, while physical premiums have also fallen," ING said in a note. "U.S. aluminium premiums fell to a seven-year low, which suggests that despite a market deficit, availability in the physical market remains ample."
Standard Chartered, however, said in a report that China was likely to step up its exports of semi-processed aluminium to global markets this year and carve out a bigger market share, after a revival in prices triggered production restarts.
China's semi-manufactured aluminium exports jumped 17 percent on the year to 410,000 tonnes in August.
LME nickel and LME lead were untraded in official rings, but were last down 0.5 percent at $10,050 a tonne, and up 1.4 percent at $1,909 a tonne, respectively.