RTRS:METALS-Copper steady near 3-month low, rising supply weighs
* Growing supply weighs on market sentiment
* Tin trade picks up on Indonesia ICDX exchange
* Coming up: U.S. international trade data at 1330 GMT
By Silvia Antonioli and Melanie Burton
LONDON/SINGAPORE, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Copper prices stayed little changed on Thursday, hovering near a three-month low hit in the previous session, as uncertainty over the timing of an expected reduction in U.S. stimulus and growing supply blunted appetite for metal.
Concerns that the United States could begin tapering its bond-buying programme this year have weighed on prices of risk assets including metals.
Loose monetary policy tends to support commodities by making liquidity more easily available for investors.
Comments by Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen late on Wednesday soothed concerns that the Fed will cut its stimulus too soon and triggered an increase in risk assets.
For base metals, however, the recovery was short-lived and benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange fell back to trade at $6,974.50 a tonne by 0952 GMT, near its $6,980 close on Wednesday.
Copper prices fell as far as $6,956 a tonne on Wednesday, the lowest since Aug. 7.
"There have been a lot of Fed comments in the past few weeks that seem to suggest that tapering this year is not completely off the agenda and there is also supply building in copper," Robin Bhar, an analyst at Societe Generale, said.
"Underlying fundamentals are certainly turning more negative for copper. I think the shorts are in the driving seat."
Growing supply is an overhang for the copper market. For example, Rio Tinto is set to submit a mine plan to U.S. authorities this week for its $6 billion Resolution project in Arizona, which could become the largest copper producer in North America.
INDONESIAN TIN
In other metals, tin was at $22,850 from $22,825.
New regulations in top tin exporter Indonesia forcing local producers to trade on a domestic exchange before export have crimped availability of tin metal, which is being reflected in LME spreads and rising physical premiums.
"Supply has definitely tightened up, even for low-purity tin in the past month. A lot of people are looking for alternative sources of supply," said a physical trader in Singapore.
On the LME, cash tin prices rose $36 higher than benchmark three-month prices on Wednesday, the loftiest since early September, while LME tin stocks have dropped to their lowest in about one year.
Volumes of Indonesia's tin contracts have picked up in the past two days, although they remain at low levels, trading around 140 lots, equivalent to 700 tonnes that will be available for export.
