London copper slips on Hormuz fears as demand gloom offsets supply chain woes

SINGAPORE: Copper fell slightly in London on Tuesday amid the latest escalation in the Middle East conflict, as demand fears offset concerns about a potential supply chain crunch. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 0. 18% to $13, 516 a metric ton by 0300 GMT. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 0. 64% to 103, 950 yuan per ton after an overnight increase in LME prices. US President Donald Trump and Iran have announced competing blockades of the Strait of Hormuz. The US has renewed its attacks on Iran, and tankers have come under attack in the vital waterway. The escalation represents a “double-edged sword for copper, ” Chinese broker Everbright Futures said in a note. It supports prices for the red metal amid fears of disruption to the copper supply chain, while weighing on them by raising economic and trade risks and dampening demand, the broker said. The fighting has rekindled fears that higher energy and input costs would force policymakers to raise interest rates to fight inflation, thereby dampening demand for growth-dependent industrial minerals like copper by stifling economic activity. Oil prices spiked to their highest level in four weeks amid the latest escalation, but remained below their peak levels from the height of the conflict. Non-yielding gold slid to a two-week low on fears of higher US interest rates. This week, markets are also looking ahead to Kevin Warsh’s debut appearance before Congress as Federal Reserve Chair and to US inflation data for clues on the dollar’s direction. Aluminium prices increased amid the escalation, which threatened to undermine the return of supply from major producers in the Middle East. On the LME, it was up 0. 63%, while on the SHFE it increased 1. 37%. Among other LME metals, zinc was steady, lead ticked 0. 08% higher, nickel added 0. 2% and tin added 0. 44%. Elsewhere on SHFE, zinc lost 0. 4%, lead lost 0. 69%, nickel gained 0. 61% and tin lost 0. 49%.

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