May 21 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper rose on Thursday as

top producer Chile lowered its production forecast, while London

prices slipped after a sharp gain in the previous session.

The most-active copper contract on the Shanghai

Futures Exchange gained 1.38% to 104,980 yuan ($15,441.19) a

metric ton by 0235 GMT.

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal

Exchange dipped 0.19% to $13,630 a ton, following a 1.82%

rebound on Wednesday.

A rally in the dollar paused after U.S. President

Donald Trump expressed willingness to wait to "get the right

answer" for a peace deal with Iran and said the war was in the

final stage.

He said the United States was also ready to proceed with

further attacks if Iran did not agree to a peace deal.

A weaker dollar makes greenback-priced metals cheaper for

holders of other currencies.

Two Chinese tankers with a total of around 4 million barrels

of oil, meanwhile, crossed the Strait of Hormuz, which remained

largely shut by Iran.

Chile's production is projected to fall 2.0% in 2026 to 5.3

million tons before recovering 4.0% in 2027.

Lower ore grades, scheduled maintenance, operational

constraints and weak performance at the start of the year are

seen as the reasons for the 2026 forecast downgrade.

Elsewhere, the recovery of PT Freeport Indonesia's Grasberg

mine is taking longer than expected, but operations should

approach full capacity by the end of 2027, its chief executive

told Reuters.

Among other SHFE metals, aluminium rose 0.41%, zinc

jumped 1.43%, lead climbed 1.22%, nickel

shed 0.41% and tin surged 3.33%.

On the LME, aluminium was little changed, zinc

ticked 0.01% higher, lead gained 0.51%, nickel

declined 0.73% and tin nudged 0.05% lower.

Thursday, May 21

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

0715 France HCOB Mfg, Services, Composite Flash PMI May

0730 Germany HCOB Mfg, Services, Composite Flash PMI May

0800 EU HCOB Mfg, Services, Composite Flash PMI May

0830 UK Flash Manufacturing, Services, Composite PMI May

1230 US Housing Starts Number Apr

1230 US Initial Jobless Clm May 16, w/e

1230 US Philly Fed Business Indx May

1345 US S&P Global Mfg, Scvc, Comp PMI Flash May

1400 EU Consumer Confid. Flash May

($1 = 6.7987 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Dylan Duan and Lewis Jackson; Editing by

Subhranshu Sahu)