* Copper crumbles as China beats inflation drums
* Nickel to set record 60,000T surplus this year - INSG
* Indonesia tin output jumps 37.6 pct in March
* Coming up: Chinese GDP/inflation data on Friday
(Recasts, adds NEW YORK dateline, byline, updates with New York closing copper price, adds graphic, analyst comments)
By Chris Kelly and Melanie Burton
NEW YORK/LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - Copper ended down for a third consecutive day on Wednesday, reacting to a firmer dollar and calls for more inflation-fighting controls in top consumer China.
Copper's losses accelerated, even as other commodity markets sought to put a floor under a two-day retreat for the Reuters-Jefferies CRB index .CRB, which hit its lowest level in nearly two weeks.
With Goldman Sachs' call for clients to take profits in the red metal still reverberating, liquidation pressures dragged London and New York prices down toward their 100-day moving averages, a key area of support that has held during two prior tests this year.
London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month copper CMCU3 closed down $115 at $9,515 a tonne.
COMEX May copper HGK1 tumbled 8.90 cents, or 2 percent, to settle at $4.2945 per lb, near the lower half of its $4.2865 to $4.4070 session range.
Total open interest for COMEX copper futures rose to a one-month high on April 11, exchange data showed Wednesday.
COMEX trading volumes remained brisk, with more than 66,400 lots traded by 2:46 p.m. EDT (1846 GMT), or close to two-thirds above the 30-day norm, according to Thomson Reuters preliminary data.
Demand jitters for copper resurfaced after China's Xinhua news agency reported the government would use everything at its disposal to stabilize prices and bring inflation under control.
For details, see [ID:nLDE73C187]
"They are also implying that there is inflation pressure in the rest of the world as well, and of course the implication there is that other parts of the world ... the developed world, will have to do the same," said Bart Melek, vice president and director of commodities, rates research & strategy with TD Bank Financial Group.
"This is getting everyone in a panic."
The latest Reuters poll showed China's consumer inflation may have accelerated to a 32-month high of 5.2 percent in March. The government has set an inflation target of 4 percent for 2011. [ID:nL3E7F70G2]
Looking ahead, all eyes will be on China's first-quarter gross domestic product data, which is expected to show that the world's second largest economy grew by 9.5 percent. The March economic indicator is due on Friday. [ID:nL3E7F70G2]
The global recovery outlook grew weaker after Japan's government downgraded its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months to reflect last month's earthquake and tsunami. Japan's auto industry, a big metals consumer, has been badly hit. [ID:nL3E7FD0DS]
In the United States, sales at retailers rose slightly less than expected in March while auto sales dropped, the government said, pointing to slower consumer spending in the first quarter. [ID:nN13249074]
On the supply side, a 3,225-tonne increase in LME copper inventories MCU-STOCKS added to the bearish tone. Stockpiles have now surged by more than 100,000 tonnes from mid-December.
This overshadowed a forecast from global miner Rio Tinto (RIO.AX)(RIO.L) for a 10 percent drop in refined copper output for this year to 350,000 tonnes. [ID:nL3E7FD16K]
NICKEL SURPLUS
The International Nickel Study Group expects the global nickel market to record a 60,000-tonne surplus this year, compared with a deficit of 30,000 tonnes in 2010.
[ID:nLDE73C0CG]
Traders said demand for the metal, most commonly used in stainless steel, remained lackluster, with orders weak going into the second quarter. LME stocks were up 540 tonnes at 122,058 tonnes, the latest data showed. MNI-STOCKS LME nickel CMNI3 dropped $450 to close at $26,250 a tonne.
Tin CMSN3 shed $300 to end at $32,250 a tonne after data showed Indonesia's refined tin exports in March rose 37.6 percent to 9,051.46 tonnes. [ID:nJKF002560]
Metal Prices at 1612 GMT
COMEX copper in cents/lb, LME prices in $/T and SHFE prices in yuan/T
Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2010 Ytd Pct move
COMEX Cu 430.20 -8.15 -1.86 444.70 -3.26
LME Alum 2642.00 -18.00 -0.68 2470.00 6.96
LME Cu 9505.00 -125.00 -1.30 9600.00 -0.99
LME Lead 2679.00 -46.00 -1.69 2550.00 5.06
LME Nicke l6250.00 -450.00 -1.69 24750.00 6.06
LME Tin 32200.00 -350.00 -1.08 26900.00 19.70
LME Zinc 2421.00 -48.00 -1.94 2454.00 -1.34
SHFE Alu 16790.00 10.00 +0.06 16840.00 -0.30
SHFE Cu* 72180.00 -130.00 -0.18 71850.00 0.46
SHFE Zin 18565.00 -25.00 -0.13 19475.00 -4.67
** Benchmark month for COMEX copper
* 3rd contract month for SHFE AL, CU and ZN
SHFE ZN began trading on 26/3/07
(Additional reporting by Sue Thomas in London; editing by
Jane Baird and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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