Base metals prices fell on Monday, with London copper hitting its lowest in nearly three years, as global markets fell amid plunging oil prices and rising coronavirus cases in Italy and the United States.
Asian shares sank as panicked investors fled to bonds to hedge the economic shock from the coronavirus and as oil plunged more than 20 percent after Saudi Arabia slashed its official selling price.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell as much as 2 percent to $5,494 a ton, its lowest since May 2017. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) dropped to a 40-month low at 43,310 yuan ($6,258.50) a ton.
The number of coronavirus cases in Italy jumped 25 percent in a day to 7,375 on Sunday, and deaths there climbed by more than half to 366, forcing the country to order a lockdown across much of its wealthy north, including in financial capital Milan.
Globally, more than 3,500 people have died and more than 100,000 have been infected by the virus.
Meanwhile, China’s unwrought copper imports rose 7.2 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2020, customs data showed on Saturday, as a restocking drive before Lunar New Year offset the impact of the coronavirus, which nonetheless sent aluminum exports plunging.
The General Administration of Customs said last month it would combine preliminary trade data for January and February instead of releasing data for individual months. Early-year data in China is typically distorted by the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, while this year the coronavirus epidemic has also widely disrupted business.
Imports of unwrought copper, including anode, refined and semi-finished copper products into China, the world’s biggest copper consumer, came in at 846,107 tons in January-February, up from 789,358 tons in the year-earlier period. The previous period had one less day due to 2020 being a leap year. — Reuters
