Updates with mid-session trading
April 16 (Reuters) - London copper prices fell on Wednesday on escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China, which overshadowed upbeat data from the world's top metals consumer.
The benchmark three-month copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange $(LME.AU)$ was down 1.2% to $9,059 a metric ton as of 0620 GMT.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) SCFcv1 fell 1.1% to 75,210 yuan ($10,268.98)per ton.
China ordered its airlines not to take any further deliveries of Boeing BA.N jets in response to the U.S. imposing 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, Bloomberg News reported.
Adding to this, Nvidia NVDA.O said on Tuesday it would take $5.5 billion in charges after the U.S. limited exports of its H20 artificial intelligence chip to China, a key market for one of its most popular chips.
Meanwhile, China's first-quarter economic growth outstripped expectations, underpinned by solid consumption and industrial output, but analysts fear the momentum could shift sharply lower as U.S. tariffs pose the biggest risk to the Asian powerhouse in decades.
"There's ongoing fears about how tariffs will impact China's economy going forward. All else equal, we should see weaker growth without some very muscular support from authorities," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.
"The bigger news is the halt on Boeing orders and, even greater than that, the ban of Nvidia's H20 chip going into China. It shows an even further deterioration in U.S.-China trade relations and with it greater downside risks to future economic activity and therefore copper demand," Rodda said.
LME aluminium CMAL3 lost 0.8% to $2,355.5 a ton, lead CMPB3 fell 0.9% at $1,898, nickel CMNI3 eased 1% to $15,410 a ton, zinc CMZN3 was down 1.3% at $2,580.5, while tin CMSN3 was steady at $31,050.
SHFE aluminium SAFcv1 lost 0.6% to 19,505 yuan a ton, zinc SZNcv1 fell 2.1% to 21,890 yuan, lead SPBcv1 retreated 0.8% to 16,675 yuan, tin SSNcv1 fell 1% to 256,930 yuan and nickel SNIcv1 gained 0.4% to 124,110 yuan.
($1 = 7.3240 Chinese yuan )
(Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Varun H K and Sonia Cheema)
((anushree.ashishMukherjee@thomsonreuters.com;))
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