METALS-China imports at nine-month high buoy copper prices

Copper prices rose on Monday as dwindling inventories and signs of strong demand in top consumer China triggered a flurry of buying.

Benchmark copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.5% to $13,593.5 a metric ton at 0937 GMT.

Traders said import data showing China's imports of refined copper hitting a nine-month high in June boosted sentiment for the metal used in the power and construction industries. Part of the reason for higher imports is declining domestic supply due to smelter maintenance.

Much of the copper that has left the LME system since February last year, when U.S. President Donald Trump first mooted import tariffs on the metal, has been shipped to the United States.

"We expect the ex-U.S. copper market to remain tight near term, with the continued U.S. import pull on tariff expectations drawing units away from an already thin ex-U.S. market, and low Chinese inventories and limited scrap substitution cushioning the downside," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note.

Worries about copper availability on the LME have created a backwardation or premium for most nearby contracts against longer-dated forwards 0#MCU:.

In other metals, aluminium CMAL3 firmed 0.2% to $3,158 a ton, zinc CMZN3 rose 0.5% to $3,542, lead CMPB3 slipped 0.3% to $1,876, tin CMSN3 advanced 0.3% to $53,375 and nickel CMNI3 advanced 0.4% to $17,030.

A gauge of China's appetite for importing metal, the Yangshan copper premium SMM-CUYP-CN, jumped to a 14-month high of $100 a ton on July 17, data from consultancy Shanghai Metals Market showed. The premium has soared 133% this year.