London copper prices fell on Wednesday, retreating from a six-week high hit in the previous session, as the US dollar held firm on expectations for early interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.4% to $9,725 a tonne by 0330 GMT.

On Tuesday, prices hit their highest since Nov. 25 at $9,812.

The most-traded February copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0.6% to 70,210 yuan ($11,018.69) a tonne.The dollar hovered close to a two-week high hit in the previous session against a basket of major currencies while scaling a five-year peak against the Japanese yen.

While a firmer dollar makes greenback-priced metals more expensive to holders of other currencies, an interest rate hike could trim liquidity in financial markets and slow recovery in the world's biggest economy.

Among other industrial metals, LME aluminium was down 0.1% at $2,837.5 a tonne, nickel slipped 0.7% to $20,980 a tonne, lead was down 0.2% at $2,293 a tonne, tin was flat at $39,195 a tonne and zinc fell 0.8% to $3,575 a tonne.

Fundamentals

• ShFE aluminium rose 0.4% to 20,330 yuan a tonne, while nickel gained 1.6% to 154,130 yuan, zinc was up 1.4% at 24,430 yuan and lead fell 1.1% to 15,260 yuan. Tin climbed 2.2% to 296,780 yuan a tonne, having earlier scaled a record high of 297,900 yuan.

  • Chile's total copper production in November fell by 0.6% year-on-year to 481,800 tonnes, due to drops from state-owned Codelco and the giant Escondida mine, the Chilean Copper Commission reported on Tuesday.

• Indonesian coal miners are due to hold talks with government officials on Wednesday on a ban on the country's coal exports that has unnerved global markets for the fuel and triggered energy security concerns in some major economies.