BEIJING, Feb 13 (Reuters) - London copper prices rose on
Wednesday, on track to snap four consecutive sessions of
declines, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he could see
the deadline for a trade agreement with top metals consumer
China being pushed back.
The world's two biggest economies are currently holding
their latest round of trade talks in Beijing. If they cannot
reach a deal to end their trade dispute by March 1, U.S. tariffs
on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to
increase to 25 percent from 10 percent.
FUNDAMENTALS
* LME COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal
Exchange , which shed 17.7 percent last year on concerns
the U.S.-China trade row would crimp demand, was up 0.5 percent
at $6,134.50 a tonne, as of 0203 GMT, after ending down 0.7
percent in the previous session.
* SHFE COPPER: The most-traded March copper contract on the
Shanghai Futures Exchange slipped 0.4 percent to 48,080
yuan ($7,116.01) a tonne.
* TRADE: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he
could see letting the March 1 deadline for reaching a trade
agreement with China slide a little, but that he would prefer
not to and expects to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to close
the deal at some point.
* SHUTDOWN: Trump also said on Tuesday he was not happy
about a tentative immigration deal reached by a bipartisan group
of lawmakers, but he did not anticipate another partial shutdown
of the federal government.
* ZINC: London zinc rose 0.4 percent to $2,619 a
tonne, after closing 1.4 percent lower and touching a two-week
low in the previous session.
LME zinc stocks MZNSTX-TOTAL are at their lowest since
January 2008.
* LITHIUM: Livent Corp on Tuesday forecast a drop
in Chinese lithium sales for the year because of uncertainty
about the country's electric vehicle subsidies, a worrisome sign
for other producers of the key battery component.
* VALE: Senior management at Brazilian miner Vale
were never shown internal security documents indicating that its
dam at Brumadinho was at risk of collapse, the company's chief
financial officer said on Tuesday.
