May 5 (Reuters) - Copper prices were on track for a third consecutive weekly drop on Friday as tepid demand in top consumer China and improving supply pressured the market.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.6% at $8,543 a tonne by 0742 GMT, helped by a weaker dollar, but the contract was down 0.6% over the week.
The most-traded June copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.3% to 66,810 yuan ($9,664.26) a tonne. It was down 0.5% over the week to register a third straight weekly decline.
Chinese factory activity contracted unexpectedly in April as orders fell, with poor domestic demand dragging on the metals-hungry manufacturing sector while supply of copper scrap in China is improving, analysts said.
"The recovery momentum has slowed ... There is a strong certainty that the production of scrap copper smelting on the supply side will remain at a relatively high level in the second quarter, while the consumption side has weakened from the previous quarter," Chinese brokerage Jinrui Futures said in a note.
However, prices were cushioned by a softer dollar as traders priced in interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
LME aluminium edged up 0.7% to $2,303 a tonne, tin climbed 1.6% to $26,010, zinc gained 1% to $2,648 while lead added 1.2% at $2,127 and nickel advanced 0.3% to $24,065.
SHFE aluminium was down 0.7% at 18,320 yuan a tonne, nickel dropped 2.1% to 183,260 yuan, lead eased by 0.1% to 15,345 while tin fell 0.4% to 208,830 yuan and zinc gained 0.6% to 21,285 yuan.
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($1 = 6.9131 yuan) (Reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and David Goodman )
