* Cash zinc premium over three-month contract at one-yearhigh
* Benchmark nickel hits 11-month low (Updates with closing prices)By Pratima DesaiLONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Copper prices rose on Tuesday asworries about growth in top consumer China receded after areport that the country's chief trade negotiator could visit theUnited States before a meeting between the two countries'leaders.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange ended0.4 percent up at $6,073 a tonne, down from a session high of$6,181."The panic about Chinese growth and the trade dispute isoverdone. Credit conditions are beings loosened; which, thoughpositive, will take time to feed through to activity," said DanSmith, head of commodities research at Oxford Economics."Volatility is going to remain pretty high because of allthe political and economic uncertainty, but copper below $6,000a tonne is cheap on a five-year view."
TRADE: China's top trade negotiator Liu He could visitWashington to prepare for talks between U.S. President DonaldTrump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines ofthe G20 summit in Argentina this month, the South China MorningPost reported. CHINA: China accounts for nearly half of global copperdemand estimated at about 24 million tonnes this year. Copper iswidely used in power and construction and viewed by investors asa gauge of economic health.China's October copper imports fell 18.7 percent fromSeptember to 423,000 tonnes, while those for the Jan-Oct periodrose 17 percent year on year to 4.41 million tonnes. NICKEL: Stainless steel raw material nickel endeddown 0.3 percent at $11,345 a tonne, having earlier touched an11-month low of $11,255 on weak fundamentals."Our base case had expected prices to trade at 90thpercentile next year -- average at $14,375 a tonne -- but unlesstightness materialises ... there is limited economic reason formarginal nickel producers not to be cash negative," Citianalysts said in a recent note.
"Since 2012, and as nickel pig-iron output has grown itsshare, prices have tracked closer to the 75th percentile. Atcurrent costs this would suggest prices find support around$11,500 a tonne."ZINC SPREAD: The premium for cash zinc over the three-monthcontract at a one-year high of $67 a tonne is becausea few firms hold substantial amounts of LME zinc warrants,fuelling worries about shortages on the LME market, traderssaid.The other problem, traders say, is that buyers of physicalmetal are looking for better quality zinc than they are beingoffered.Zinc closed 0.3 percent lower at $2,489 a tonne.PRICES: Aluminium slipped 0.4 percent to $1,935.5 atonne, lead gained 1.2 percent to $1,952 and tin was little changed at $19,270.<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Pratima Desai; additional reporting by Mai NguyenEditing by Adrian Croft and David Goodman)