METALS-Copper steady, stocks drop offsets economic worries

* Copper stocks drop, aluminium stocks near record high

* Eyes on China trade data later in the week

* Tin in backwardation

(Recasts, previous dateline SHANGHAI)

By Rebekah Curtis

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Copper drifted lower on Tuesday, pressured by demand concerns as Chinese buying tailed off and economic uncertainty troubled global markets, but falling inventories helped the metal pare some early losses.

Copper for three-months delivery MCU3 on the London Metal Exchange traded at $4,974.75 a tonne at 0911 GMT, from a close of $4,970 on Monday. The metal used in power and construction hit a session low of $4,900, having reached a near-two-week low of $4,842.25 the day before.

"We're going into the quieter summer period and there's a widespread belief that Chinese imports are going to be lower in these couple of months for most of the (industrial) metals," said Stephen Briggs, commodity strategist at RBS Global Banking and Markets.

Stockpiling by China, the world's top copper consumer, has helped copper prices surge more than 60 percent so far this year. But analysts warn China's buying exercise is fading and Western economies remain too beleaguered to pick up the baton.

Copper pared earlier losses as data showed inventories dropped 3,250 tonnes to 265,925 tonnes, allaying some concerns about stocks potentially rising in a weak period for demand.

SENTIMENT FRAGILE

Dampening sentiment, a research group said the U.S. job market weakened in June after rebounding in May for the first time in 21 months, reaffirming that employment has yet to reach a bottom, while a report said the U.S. service sector was still shrinking in June, albeit at a lower pace. [ID:nN06492915]

A light economic calendar this week could keep metals prices in a tight range, analysts and traders said.

The main influence will probably be China trade data for June, likely to be released on Friday.

"With rising inventories and weaker domestic price premiums, if the Chinese June data supports the view that domestic demand is beginning to ebb, then this downward trend could be more sustained," Barclays Capital said in a note. Among other metals, aluminium MAL3 was at $1,630 from $1,617. Stocks of the metal used in transport and packaging rose 250 tonnes to flirt with a record near 4.4 million tonnes.

Zinc MZN3 was at $1,578 from $1,565, while battery material lead MPB3 was at $1,710 from $1,684.

The parent of Jiangxi Copper (0358.HK)(600362.SS) is building a 200,000-tonne-per-year lead smelter and a 200,000-tonne-per-year zinc smelter, which would add further to China's oversupplies of lead and zinc. [ID:nHKG15545]

Tin MSN3 was at $14,350 from $14,250. The metal is in a backwardation -- premium for cash material over the three-months contract -- of $85.

Investors are showing increasing concern about the scale of long positions developing in the tin market, compared with the amount of available metal stored in London Metal Exchange warehouses.

Such worries centre on the September-December 2009 contracts, where a large number of positions were built up last week. [ID:nL6246168]

Nickel MNI3 traded at $15,900 from $15,950.

Metal Prices at 0912 GMT Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2008 Ytd Pct

move COMEX Cu 225.50 0.45 +0.20 139.50 61.65 LME Alum 1624.00 7.00 +0.43 1535.00 5.80 LME Cu 4972.00 2.00 +0.04 3060.00 62.48 LME Lead 1706.00 -4.00 -0.23 999.00 70.77 LME Nickel 15850.00 -100.00 -0.63 11700.00 35.47 LME Tin 14325.00 -425.00 -2.88 10700.00 33.88 LME Zinc 1573.00 8.00 +0.51 1208.00 30.22 SHFE Alu 13480.00 80.00 +0.60 11540.00 16.81 SHFE Cu* 39250.00 390.00 +1.00 23840.00 64.64 SHFE Zin 13320.00 90.00 +0.68 10120.00 31.62 ** 1st contract month for COMEX copper * 3rd contract month for SHFE AL, CU and ZN SHFE ZN began trading on 26/3/07 (Editing by Anthony Barker)