METALS-Aluminium declines after report that Trump plans to roll back some tariffs

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Aluminium fell on Friday, after U.S. President Donald Trump was reported to be planning to roll back some tariffs on aluminium goods.

The most-active aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SAFcv1 declined 1.76% to close daytime trading at 23,195 yuan ($3,355.27) a ton.

The benchmark three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange CMAL3 also dipped, down 1.18% to 3,063.50 a ton as of 0740 GMT.

Trump is considering rolling back some tariffs on steel and aluminium goods, as officials in his administration believe the tariffs are hurting consumers, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The U.S. President hit steel and aluminium imports with tariffs of up to 50% in June last year.

Aluminium tumbled following the news. The Shanghai aluminium pulled back as much as 2.16%, and the London benchmark dipped as much as 1.52%. The light metal recovered some losses on both bourse later.

Aluminium has been rallying since late last year, as growth of output in China is expected to stall due to a government-set capacity cap, and the metal was most recently supported by mining company South32 S32.AX reaffirming that it would put its Mozambique plant on care and maintenance next month due to a power supply issue.

The walk-back of tariffs will help aluminium to flow more smoothly among global markets but has limited impact on the light metal's supply-demand fundamentals, traders said.

The decline in aluminium met a broader sell-off ahead of China's nine-day Lunar New Year break from February 15.

The Shanghai most-active copper contract SCFcv1 closed daytime trading down 2.24% to 100,380 yuan a ton.

The benchmark three-month copper CMCU3, however, nudged 0.02% higher to $12,878 a ton, hovering below the $13,000 mark.

Physical demand is falling in China ahead of the long break. Spot copper premium SMM-CU-PND, paid over the SHFE copper price, flipped back into a 60 yuan per ton discount on Thursday, indicating softening demand.

The Yangshan copper premium SMM-CUYP-CN, a gauge of Chinese appetite for imported materials, fell to $34 a ton. Though an improvement from $20 in late January, the premium remains historically low and does not indicate a material revival in Chinese demand.

Elsewhere on SHFE, tin SSNcv1 led the sell-off, plunging 7.01%. Nickel SNIcv1 lost 3.66%, zinc SZNcv1 tumbled 1.61% and lead SPBcv1 dipped 0.27%.

Among other metals on the LME, tin CMSN3 tumbled 5.05%, nickel CMNI3 shed 0.96%, zinc CMZN3 dropped 0.92% and lead CMPB3 nudged 0.15% lower.

($1 = 6.9130 Chinese yuan renminbi)