By Claudia Carpenter Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Copper and tin rose in London after China’s Yunnan government said it will buy 1 million metric tons of industrial metals for stockpiles. The purchases include 150,000 tons of copper and 100,000 tons of tin, according to China Land and Resources News, a newsletter of the Yunnan government. That’s equal to about half of copper stockpiles in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange and more than 20 times the tin stockpiles. “This is positive for a reduction in stockpiles,” said Shiv Madan, a trader at Dresdner Kleinwort in London. Copper for delivery in three months gained $36 to $3,656 a metric ton as of 9:17 a.m. on the London Metal Exchange and tin rose $300 to $12,600 a ton. Inventories of copper declined 450 tons to 291,200 tons, the first drop in three days. Copper’s gains were probably in part driven by so-called short covering by traders who were expecting prices to decline, Madan said. Short covering occurs when investors buy commodities to close a bet that prices will fall. Aluminum dropped $4 to $1,786 a ton after inventories rose 20,850 tons to 1.82 million tons, bringing the gain this year to 96 percent. Lead dropped $13 to $1,090 a ton, zinc declined $5 to $1,205 a ton and nickel fell $150 to $10,050 a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Claudia Carpenter in London at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net or ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

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