* Palladium near highest since 2001     * Gold ticks up to 1-week high as SPDR sees another inflow     * Coming Up: Minutes from Fed's June 17-18 meeting; 1800 GMT   (Updates prices)     By A. Ananthalakshmi     SINGAPORE, July 9 (Reuters) - Palladium climbed for a 13th session on Wednesday to trade near its highest since 2001 on concerns over supply constraints in major producer South Africa, while strong demand for the metal from the auto industry also underpinned prices.     Gold inched up as the world's top bullion fund saw a second straight day of inflows, even as markets awaited the minutes of the Federal Reserve's June policy meeting to gauge the U.S. central bank's outlook for the economy and interest rates.     Prices of platinum group metals (PGMs) have been boosted this year by a five-month long strike in major producer South Africa. Though the strike ended last month, there are lingering supply concerns in the market.      "PGMs have some more upside because the market is not convinced producers can quickly ramp up output to pre-strike levels," said a trader in Tokyo.     The trader also said another short strike at Impala Platinum's  
  IMPJ.J
   Marula mine that ended on Tuesday and a widespread car industry strike underscored the fickle situation in South Africa, the top producer of platinum and the No. 2 producer of palladium.  
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       Palladium  
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   rose 0.6 percent to $872.60 an ounce by 0634 GMT. It hit a 13-year high of $873.75 on Tuesday. Platinum  
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   rose nearly 1 percent.     The metal, mainly used in autocatalysts, also got a boost from data last week that showed that U.S. auto sales hit an eight-year high in June.     Spot gold  
  XAU=
   rose 0.5 percent to $1,324.66 an ounce after earlier hitting a one-week top of $1,326, as Asian stocks extended losses to a one-week low after China's consumer price inflation cooled slightly more than expected in June. 
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       SPDR Gold Trust  
  GLD
  , the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings rose 2.09 tonnes to 800.28 tonnes on Tuesday, after gaining 1.8 tonnes on Monday.  
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       Demand for gold was boosted by violence in the Middle East and Ukraine. Gold is often seen as a safe-haven asset compared with riskier assets such as equities.     Bullion investors were also awaiting the minutes of the Fed policy meeting later today for clues on the timing of a rate hike. A strong U.S. jobs report last week stoked fears of an earlier-than-expected rate hike in the world's largest economy.     A hike would encourage investors to withdraw money from non-interest-bearing assets such as gold.                  PRICES AT 0634 GMT           Metal            Last      Change   Pct chg                                        Spot gold         1324.66     6.06      0.46  Spot silver          21.1      0.1      0.48  Spot platinum      1500.5     13.6      0.91  Spot palladium      872.6      5.4      0.62  Comex gold         1325.9      9.4      0.71  Comex silver       21.175    0.162      0.77  Euro               1.3625                     DXY                80.111                                                           COMEX gold and silver contracts show the  most active months    (Editing by Himani Sarkar)  ((ananthalakshmi.as@thomsonreuters.com)(+65 6870 3726)(Reuters Messaging: ananthalakshmi.as.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))