Industrial metals fell on Wednesday as China’s pledge to bring down coal prices eased worries about supply disruption in metals and investors booked profits after recent strong gains.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 1.9 percent to $9,957 a ton, while the most-traded November copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped 3.2 percent to 72,910 yuan ($11,406.80) a ton.
ShFE zinc tumbled 6.8 percent to 25,320 yuan a ton, aluminum shed 6.3 percent to 22,800 yuan a ton, copper lost 3 percent to 73,020 yuan a ton and tin dropped 3.1 percent to 280,580 yuan a ton.
China’s state planner said on Tuesday it was studying ways of intervening in high coal prices and would take all necessary measures to bring them back to a reasonable range.
The most-active Dalian coking coal contract and coke futures both dropped 9 percent on Wednesday, while China’s coal futures fell 8 percent to their downward limit in night trading on Tuesday.
The power crunch in China and electricity price hikes in Europe have raised concerns of supply shortages in base metals, some of which are already seeing multi-year low inventories.
Last week, LME zinc surged 20.4 percent, copper gained 9.8 percent and aluminum advanced 6.9 percent. – Reuters
