BEIJING, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Zinc prices fell in London and Shanghai in early Asian trade on Tuesday, as a rise in Chinese inventories stoked demand concerns and led investors to take up short positions on the metal used to galvanise steel. Social, or non-exchange, zinc stocks in China rose by more than 5,000 tonnes as of Dec. 23, Chinese brokerage Jinrui Futures said in a note, relieving some of the pressure on supply from low exchange inventories. FUNDAMENTALS * ZINC: Three-month zinc on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.2% to $2,285.50 as of 0233 GMT, after ending down 2.1% in the previous session. The most traded February zinc contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slumped 1.5% to 17,850 yuan ($2,545.20) a tonne. * TCs: Treatment charges for zinc concentrate in China AM-TC50-ZNCON have hit as high as $310 a tonne this month, the highest since June 2008 amid plentiful ore supply, incentivising smelters to keep producing metal. * COPPER: LME copper edged down 0.2% to $6,177.50 a tonne in quiet pre-holiday trade, while Shanghai copper inched up 0.1% to 49,080 yuan a tonne. * SCRAP: China's environment ministry has issued import quotas for 270,885 tonnes of high-grade copper scrap and 275,465 tonnes of aluminium scrap, the first batch for use in 2020. China's scrap metal imports in November rose by 6.3% from the previous month to 170,000 tonnes. [ * RARE EARTHS: Rare earths miner UCore Rare Metals Inc and manufacturer Materion Corp said on Monday they will form a consortium to jointly apply for U.S. military funding of a rare earths processing plant. * HOLIDAY: The London Metal Exchange will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday for the Christmas holiday. * For the top stories in metals and other news, click or MARKETS NEWS * The dollar traded little changed while equity markets added to a year-end rally, with both a gauge of stock performance worldwide and Wall Street hitting new highs amid renewed optimism over U.S.-China trade and growth prospects. DATA/EVENTS AHEAD (GMT) 1330 U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia issues nonmanufacturing business outlook survey for December PRICES BASE METALS PRICES 0236 GMT Three month LME copper 6180 Most active ShFE copper 49100 Three month LME aluminium 1805 Most active ShFE aluminium 14180 Three month LME zinc 2287 Most active ShFE zinc 17865 Three month LME lead 1928 Most active ShFE lead 14810 Three month LME nickel 14270 Most active ShFE nickel 112440 Three month LME tin 17160 Most active ShFE tin 138980 BASE METALS ARBITRAGE LME/SHFE COPPER LMESHFCUc 275.51 3 LME/SHFE ALUMINIUM LMESHFALc -239.92 3 LME/SHFE ZINC LMESHFZNc -502.96 3 LME/SHFE LEAD LMESHFPBc -938.27 3 LME/SHFE NICKEL LMESHFNIc -3164.36 3 ($1 = 7.0132 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
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