Market and product

Zinc led the London Metal Exchange complex higher on Monday amid dwindling inventories and a pledge from China's central bank to increase loans after a sharp drop in bank lending in February.

The metal, used to galvanise steel, has risen more than 11 percent in London so far in 2019 as zinc stocks at LME-registered warehouses have halved to below 60,000 tonnes MZN-STOCKS.

In the short term, sentiment over shrinking stocks continues to ferment "but the medium- and long-term oversupply trend has not yet been broken" for zinc, Jinrui Futures wrote in a note.

LME zinc prices should trade in a range of $2,700-$2,900 a tonne this week, the Chinese brokerage added.

FUNDAMENTALS

* ZINC: Three-month LME zinc rose as much as 1.5 percent to $2,750.50 a tonne, and stood at $2,749.50 as of 0708 GMT. The most-traded zinc contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 1 percent at 21,540 yuan ($3,204.31) a tonne.

* ZINC TC: Global trader and miner Glencore has struck a deal with its Canadian subsidiary Noranda Income Fund on the terms of zinc treatment charges for the coming year, but did not disclose the fees.

* LME: The LME is launching seven new cash-settled futures contracts on Monday, including hot-rolled coil (HRC) steel, alumina and cobalt.

* OTHER METALS: Lead, zinc's sister metal, was the next-biggest gainer, adding 1.1 percent in London. LME copper nudged up 0.3 percent to $6,412 a tonne, while ShFE copper closed up 0.1 percent at 49,190 yuan a tonne.

* COPPER: China's unwrought copper imports fell in February to their lowest in 11 months, while copper concentrate imports tied the all-time monthly record, signalling the world's top copper consumer is churning out more metal itself.

* FREEPORT: The Indonesian government has approved one-year export allowances for copper concentrate for miners PT Freeport Indonesia and PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara.

* ALUMINIUM: Some Japanese aluminium buyers have agreed to pay a premium of $105 per tonne for shipments in April to June, reflecting higher local spot premiums, four sources directly involved in the pricing talks said.- Reuters-