Another 4,025 tonnes of zinc was delivered on Thursday to the London Metal Exchange warehouse in Singapore, bringing the total stocks to 109,100 tonnes.

The zinc premium, which had been $8 to $10 a few days ago, was $7 a tonne. A trader said the market was probably expecting the Chinese shipment.

Joe Singer, president of metal consultants Penfold Ltd in Shanghai, said the recent rise in the LME zinc price from about $950 a tonne at the end of October may have sparked the latest shipment.

"There has been material sitting around for a long time waiting for the price to come up. It came up marginally, so they may have decided to move out some tonnage," he said.

Zinc gained $6.50 on Thursday to $1,003 on the LME. Singer said a key question was whether there was a lot more zinc metal in China waiting to be shipped out whenthe LME price rose.

"There may be more zinc waiting for the price to go higher, but I don't think it's a huge amount," Singer said.

He said the United States and Taiwan have been the big markets for Chinese zinc this year. A Hong Kong trader said his company was also selling zinc to Thailand and South Korea.

Traders in Singapore said activity was slowed by the US Thanksgiving holiday this week but activity was likely to pick up next week.

Copper premiums in Singapore also have been under pressure from recent shipments of between 5,000 and 6,000 tonnes into warehouses, mainly from Japan and China, traders said.

The premium was $3 to $5 a tonne for South Korean brand copper and LME copper stocks in Singapore were 79,900 tonnes.

On other metals, traders said China was likely to keep lead production steady in 1999 at about 500,000 tonnes.

"There is no particular reason to encourage China to increase production," a trader said, citing the low world price.

Exports were also expected to stay steady,although Japanese buying in the first quarter 1999 may give a temporary boost to Chinese lead exports.

Lead exports have been between 10,000 and 20,000 tonnes per month in the first seven months of 1998. The premium was $15 a tonne fob China

The copper premium was $40 to $45 a tonne for Shanghai and Hong Kong CIF, which compared with $80 in February.

A Chinese government crackdown on illegal copper imports to help domestic producers has virtually stopped imports into China.

Consumption is expected to improve next year if Beijing follows through on plans to boost spending on infrastructure, including an upgrade of power networks in cities and counties.

China's stocks are high with more than 102,067 tonnes in the Shanghai Metal Exchange on November 20 compared with 20,000 to 30,000 stocks in the past.