BEIJING - Most base metals advanced in early trade on Thursday as investors hoped for a U.S.-China trade deal, with Shanghai aluminium hitting a near six-month high on expectations of higher consumption and lower stocks.   

FUNDAMENTALS

ALUMINIUM: The most traded June aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose as much as 0.7 percent to 14,255 yuan ($2,118.38) a tonne, the highest since Oct. 31, further easing pressure on Chinese smelters' margins.

ALUMINIUM STOCKS: Aluminium inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses fell by 14,175 tonnes on Wednesday to 1.03 million tonnes, the lowest since October .

COLUMN: Global aluminium output flatlines as outages offset ramp-ups: Andy Home

COPPER: ShFE copper rose 0.7 percent to 49,310 yuan a tonne, while three-month LME copper was flat at $6,448 a tonne, after closing up 0.6 percent on Wednesday.

COPPER: The world's top copper miner Codelco has added its first hybrid dumptruck to its fleet at its El Teniente mine, the company said on Wednesday, in a global mining industry that is increasingly seeking to reduce its emissions and environmental footprint.   

TRADE: U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will travel to Beijing for trade talks beginning on April 30, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.

VALE: Brazilian miner Vale SA has filed a lawsuit in the United States against BSG Resources Ltd to force the firm to pay Vale $1.2 billion, as mandated by an arbitrator, the company said on Wednesday.

DEEPSEA MINING: China and a quest for battery minerals have injected momentum into a long U.N. process to agree a law on deep sea mining, which could be adopted by the end of 2020, if the political will exists, the head of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) said.  

Asian shares slipped as a surprise deterioration in Germanbusiness morale rekindled fears of slowing global growth, while oil prices pulled back slightly after a sharp run-up earlier in the week.           

(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

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