But most industrial metals are heading for losses in 2018, with copper facing its first annual decline since 2015 on worries over slowing economic growth in top consumer China.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6 percent to $6,030.50 a tonne by 0634 GMT. For the year, copper has fallen almost 17 percent.

* China's manufacturing sector is expected to have contracted for the first time in more than two years in December, reinforcing a deteriorating economic outlook and the need for more policy support to weather rising external and domestic pressures.

* Data last week showed earnings at Chinese industrial firms in November dropped for the first time in nearly three years.

* Signs of progress on trade talks between the United States and China could support prices in early January.

* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he had a "long and very good call" with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that a possible trade deal between the two sides was progressing well.

* Chilean miner Collahuasi - which produced an estimated 545,000 tonnes of copper this year - has applied for an environmental permit to extend the life of its deposit with an estimated $3.2 billion investment.

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MARKETS NEWS

* Asian stocks crept higher on Monday as signs of progress in the Sino-U.S. trade standoff provided a rare glint of optimism in what has been a disappointing year for equities in the region.