* Zinc stocks in LME approved warehouses halved since August
* U.S-China trade truce threatened by Huawei CFO arrest (Updates with closing prices)By Pratima DesaiLONDON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Copper prices slipped on Mondayas Chinese import data reinforced worries about growth in demandfor industrial metals fuelled by the ongoing U.S.-China tradedispute, while a firmer dollar also weighed.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange endeddown 0.9 percent at $6,089 a tonne. Prices of the metal used inpower and construction have mostly traded in a range between$6,000 and $6,400 since late September."The import data is a drag on sentiment though we knew Chinagrowth was slowing, we saw that in the PMIs. The truce betweenChina and the United States is under scrutiny, so we wouldn'texpect much upside," said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke."Demand is neither strong or soft enough to push priceseither way at the moment. The dollar is always important."
IMPORTS: China's copper imports fell 3 percent in Novemberfrom a year ago to 456,000 tonnes, but they were up 8.6 percentfrom October's number at 420,000 tonnes. PMI: The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers'Index (PMI) for November ticked up to 50.2 from 50.1 in October.The sub-index for new export orders shrank to 47.7 in Novemberfrom 48.8 in October. TRADE: The arrest of Huawei's CFO by Canadian authorities onDec. 1 at the request of the United States has roiled globalmarkets due to concern it could torpedo attempts to thaw tradetensions between the United States and China. "We doubt the three months allocated to these discussionswill be sufficient to adequately address all of the U.S.'sgrievances," said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir in a note."They run the gamut from protecting U.S. intellectualproperty rights, addressing the issue of 'forced' technologytransfers, increasing foreign ownership rights, addressingcommercial hacking concerns and a push to remove or reducecredit subsidies for Chinese state-owned enterprises."DOLLAR: The firmer U.S. currency makes dollar-denominatedcommodities more expensive for holders of other currencies. Thisis a relationship used by funds to generate buy and sell signalsfrom numerical models. ZINC: Stocks of zinc in LME registered warehouses at 113,875tonnes have halved since the middle of August to their lowest inmore than 10 years.
That combined with a large position holding between 80 and89 percent of warrants and cash contracts hascreated nervousness about nearby availability on the LME market.This can be seen in the premium for the cash over thethree-month contract rising to $125 a tonne last week. It waslast around $94 a tonne. Three-month zinc fell 0.5 percent at $2,575 a tonne.PRICES: Aluminium fell 0.9 percent at $1,937, lead slid 2.2 percent to $1,950, tin ceded 0.3percent to $18,950 and nickel lost 1.0 percent to$10,800 a tonne.<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Tom Daly and Zandi Shabalala; editingby Ed Osmond and Adrian Croft)