METALS-Copper slumps on weak China data, risk-averse investors

By Eric Onstad

LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - Copper prices slid on Friday on weak trade data from top metals consumer China, selling by miners and as investors reduced positions amid volatile changes in U.S. tariff policy.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 dropped 1.7% to $9,572 a metric ton by 1720 GMT, while U.S. Comex copper futures HGc3 lost 2.6% to $4.68 a lb.

LME copper touched its highest in four months on Thursday at $9,739 a ton on a weak dollar and after U.S. President Donald Trump relaxed his tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

The upbeat sentiment carried over to Asian trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange on Friday, where copper SCFcv1 hit a five-month peak, but it pared gains to end the session up 0.3%.

Prices pulled back on fresh worries about the world's second-largest economy after data showed Chinese imports unexpectedly shrank over January-February, while exports lost momentum and China's trade surplus with the United States grew.

In addition, China's unwrought copper imports declined by 7.2% year-on-year to 837,000 metric tons in the same period.

"The weak Chinese imports are raising a question over the real state of their domestic economy and the trade surplus is only going to raise the likelihood of more tariffs," said Alastair Munro, senior base metals strategist at broker Marex.

Investors were also shedding positions ahead of the weekend, wary of unexpected news that could hit prices, he added.

"Given all the uncertainty, we live in a much higher frequency trading world. Now you've got a lot of people who don't want to carry risk over the weekend."

With LME copper set for a rise of 2.4% this week, copper producers have been selling to lock in the higher prices, Munro said.

Helping cushion the losses was a weaker dollar .DXY, which dropped to multi-month lows against the euro and yen on Friday, after data showed the world's largest economy created fewer jobs than expected last month. FRX/

A softer dollar makes commodities priced in the U.S. currency less expensive for buyers using other currencies.

LME aluminium CMAL3 gave up 0.5% to $2,683.50 a ton, zinc CMZN3 fell 1.7% to $2,880, lead CMPB3 dropped 1.4% to $2,019 and tin CMSN3 eased 0.2% to $32,510 while nickel CMNI3 gained 0.8% to $16,420.

($1 = 7.2446 yuan)