METALS-Copper slips on Chinese demand fears and a strong dollar

By Eric Onstad

LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Copper prices edged down on Thursday, pressured by a strong dollar and concern over soft demand in top metals consumer China.

Benchmark three-month copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.4% at $10,715 a metric ton by 1715 GMT, having registered modest gains in the previous session.

LME copper has gained 22% this year but has retreated from its record peak of $11,200 on October 29.

"The Chinese property sector has been in the doldrums for a while," said WisdomTree commodities strategist Nitesh Shah.

"Power grid spending had been robust for a while, but that's slowing down in the margin as well. It's not that rapid increase that we were seeing last year or the year before."

The most traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 closed daytime trading 0.1% up at 86,080 yuan ($12,099) a ton.

China imported 279,944 tons of copper cathodes in October, down 22.1% year on year and 15.7% on a monthly basis, customs data showed on Thursday.

"Copper consumption in China has largely disappointed, with run rates at fabricators at multi-year lows for the season," Neil Welsh, head of metals at Britannia Global Markets, said in a note.

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

LME zinc was the strongest performer, gaining 0.8% to $3,006 a ton. China's zinc exports surged in October as domestic smelters turned to overseas markets after a sharp fall in LME inventories.

Aluminium CMAL3 rose 0.3% to $2,810.50 a ton and tin CMSN3 added 0.2% to $37,025 while nickel CMNI3 shed 1.3% to $14,465 and lead CMPB3 slipped 0.5% to $2,006.

($1 = 7.1145 Chinese yuan renminbi)