Feb 28 (Reuters) - Copper prices were range-bound on Wednesday as a spike in inventories in Chinese exchange warehouses offset tightness in mining supply.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was nearly flat at $8,472.50 per metric ton by 0247 GMT, while the most-traded April copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was largely unchanged at 68,850 yuan ($9,564.09) a ton.
Copper inventories in SHFE warehouses
Meanwhile, copper mine disruptions have created tightness in the ore market and pushed processing fees to multi-year lows and hurt copper smelters' profit, which could lead to an output cut in refined copper in the long term.
LME aluminium rose 0.1% to $2,192.50 a ton, nickel increased 0.1% to $17,475, zinc fell 0.4% to $2,413.50, lead declined 0.5% to $2,079.50 and tin eased 0.2% to $26,300.
SHFE aluminium edged down 0.1% at 18,825 yuan a ton, zinc eased 0.2% to 20,580 yuan, lead declined 0.3% to 15,910 yuan, while nickel rose 1.6% to 135,460 yuan and tin advanced 0.3% to 216,440 yuan.
Aluminium consumption growth in China is likely to drop 1.7% this year, from a 7.6% jump in 2023, as demand from the construction sector is likely to shrink due to the country's troubled property market.
The cash LME zinc contract was traded at a steep discount to
the three-month contract
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DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
1000 EU Consumer Confid. Final Feb
1330 US GDP 2nd Estimate Q4v
($1 = 7.1988 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Sonia Cheema)