HANOI: Copper prices advanced on Monday as traders bet on prospects of improved demand after top metals consumer China posted stronger-than-expected growth and solid industrial output data. China’s economy grew 6.5 percent in the previous quarter, faster than the 6.1 percent forecasts by economists in a Reuters poll, ending a rough coronavirus-stricken 2020 in remarkably good shape and remained solidly poised to expand further this year. The country’s industrial production also rose at a faster-than-expected rate, up 7.3 percent in December 2020 from a year earlier and hitting the highest since March 2019. “Copper turned higher after Chinese data on Monday confirmed the strong economic recovery at the world’s top metals consumer,” said commodities broker Anna Stablum at Marex Spectron in a note. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.9 percent to $8,023 a ton by 0629 GMT, while the most-traded March copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange edged up 0.1 percent to 59,270 yuan ($9,140.68) a ton. LME aluminum advanced 0.2 percent to $1,995.50 a ton and nickel increased 1.2 percent to $18,220 a ton. ShFE aluminum edged up 0.5 percent to 14,930 yuan a ton and nickel increased 0.5 percent to 134,970 yuan a ton.