LONDON- Copper prices fell, taking losses over the last seven trading days to 10 percent as an outbreak of coronavirus in China curtailed economic activity and threatened to reduce metals demand.
Other industrial metals also fell as the death toll from the virus rose to 133, airlines stopped flights to China and the infection spread to other countries.
Oil prices and global stock markets, however, largely stabilized.
Underlining the ongoing risk to metals consumption, a Reuters poll showed growth in China’s sprawling manufacturing sector likely stalled in January.
Toyota said it would keep its production plants in China closed through Feb. 9, and a Chinese government economist said the country’s economic growth may drop to 5 percent or even lower in the first quarter. China is by far the largest consumer of metals.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) ended 1.1 percent lower at $5,642 a ton, down from around $6,250 at the start of last week.
“It’s still too early to call the bottom,” said Capital Economics analyst Kieran Clancy. “You really need to see signs that the virus is being brought under control for prices to recover… there’s a clear downside risk.”
Prices of the metal used in power and construction had been rising as prospects for economic growth improved, but are now nearing a 28-month low of $5,518 a ton reached last August. — Reuters
