Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dipped 0.2% to $8,838 a tonne by 0733 GMT.
China's refined copper production in March jumped 14% from a year ago, boosted by new capacity and sufficient raw materials supply, research house Antaike said. The output growth is expected to continue this month. The supply increase from top producers was offset by the positive impact on the market of expectations of more stimulus from China, analysts at National Australia Bank (NAB) said in a research note. China posted a stronger-than-expected credit growth in March, with outstanding total social financing, a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy, growing by 10% last month from a year earlier to hit a four-month high.
The most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange ended day-time trade 0.5% higher at 68,860 yuan ($9,999.42) tonne. The U.S. dollar slipped on Wednesday, making the dollar-priced commodity cheaper for buyers using other currencies.
Other metals prices were mixed. LME aluminium climbed 0.2% to $2,306.50 a tonne, lead gained 0.4% to $2,095.50, while nickel trimmed 1% at $23,230. Zinc lost 0.3% to $2,749.50 and tin slid 1.2% to $23,450.
The share of Russian aluminium stocks in warehouses registered with the London Metal Exchange (LME) climbed to 53% of the total in March, or 220,575 tonnes, from 41% in January, data on the exchange's website showed on Tuesday. "As Russian product increasingly dominates LME on-warrant stocks, there are concerns emerging that LME prices will end up reflecting a benchmark price of Russian material, which is expected to trade at a discount to the spot market due to wide-spread self-sanctioning," the NAB note said.
SHFE aluminium slid 0.3% to 18,415 yuan, zinc eased 0.4% to 21,955 yuan, while lead edged 0.1% up to 15,280 yuan. Tin climbed 0.3% to 190,770 yuan, nickel rose 2.6% to 182,460 yuan and lead edged up 0.1% to 15,280 yuan. For the top stories in metals and other news, click or ($1 = 6.8864 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Varun H K, Sohini Goswami and Barbara Lewis)
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