By Melanie Burton

SINGAPORE, Jan 25 (Reuters) - London copper edged higher on

Friday after solid economic data from China and the United

States boosted faith in a global recovery, but prices were set

to close the week little changed, with consumer buying slow

ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays.

Manufacturing in top metals consumer China as well as the

United States grew this month at the fastest pace in about two

years, while data suggesting German growth picked up boosted

hopes for a swifter euro zone recovery.

China is the world's top consumer of copper, accounting for

around 40 percent of refined demand.

'Data is improving in Europe and the U.S. and most

importantly also from China - such as we saw in the steady

improvement in the HSBC flash PMI yesterday,' said strategist

Nick Trevethan of ANZ in Singapore.

'We should see a little bit of a pick up in quarter two

after the Chinese New Year, and we should start to see

acceleration in demand in the second half of the year -- but

expect range trading in the next three weeks before then.

China's markets will be closed from Feb. 11 to Feb 15 for

the Lunar New Year.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose

by 0.30 percent to $8,120 a tonne by 0312 GMT, after finishing

the previous session almost unchanged.

Copper has been caught in a band of $7,920-$8,250 a tonne so

far this year, after an early January rally to 2-1/2 month highs

fizzled out with its next target around $8,154, an 11-day high

reached earlier this week.

The most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures

Exchange climbed 0.44 percent to 58,890 yuan ($9,500) a

tonne. It earlier hit its highest since Oct. 22 at 58,970 yuan.

Growth in China's giant factory sector accelerated to a

two-year high in January, a preliminary private survey showed,

as manufacturers received more local and foreign orders in an

encouraging sign for the country's economic rebound.

'With Chinese consumers happy to run down high stockpiles

and uncertainty remaining ahead of the New Year holiday, the

market may be range-bound for some weeks to come,' said analyst

Nic Brown of Natixis in a research note.

MARKETS NEWS

China's copper industry is undergoing a structural shift as

a greater portion of refined copper demand is met by domestic

refineries, which will eat into imports of refined metal in

favour of raw materials imports including ore, said Credit

Suisse analyst Ivan Szpakowski in a research note.

China's smelters are adding an aggressive 2.5 million tonnes

of capacity to 2014 from 2012 with cash fuelled by rising

processing fees miners pay them and growing mine supply, the

bank said. China produced a record 6.06 million tonnes of

refined copper in 2012.

Higher Chinese output and a softening in China's export

regulation last year helped boost refined copper exports to

25,000 tonnes in December with the potential for further exports

to global markets this year, it added.

PRICES

Base metals prices at 0312 GMT

Metal Last Change Pct Move YTD pct chg

LME Cu 8120.00 24.50 +0.30 2.41

SHFE CU FUT MAY3 58890 260 +0.44 2.10

HG COPPER MAR3 369.05 1.40 +0.38 1.04

LME Alum 2079.00 3.00 +0.14 0.39

SHFE AL FUT APR3 15235 05 +0.03 -0.72

LME Zinc 2093.00 4.00 +0.19 1.43

SHFE ZN FUT APR3 15575 30 +0.19 0.19

LME Nickel 17425.00 35.00 +0.20 1.57

LME Lead 2392.00 -11.00 -0.46 2.22

SHFE PB FUT 15420.00 90.00 +0.59 1.11

LME Tin 24625.00 0.00 +0.00 5.24

LME/Shanghai arb^ 414

Shanghai and COMEX contracts show most active months

($1 = 6.2181 Chinese yuan)

($1 = 6.2181 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Joseph Radford and

Miral Fahmy)

((melanie.burton@thomsonreuters.com)(+65 6870 3017)(Reuters

Messaging: melanie.burton.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: MARKETS METALS/

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