London August 15 news, LME base metals futures fell sharply on Wednesday, as the market worried that the global economic growth prospects and demand were hit by trade, political tensions and the dollar.
At 17:00 on August 15th, London time (00:00 on August 16th, Beijing time), three-month copper fell 4% to $5,801 per ton, and the contract hit a 15-month low of $5,773 per ton.
Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg said, “Most of the increase in metal demand is coming to emerging markets, and now market participants have questioned this.”
“The slowdown in China’s economic growth has been going on for some time, and the overall impact of the US tariff on Chinese goods imports has not yet been seen. The current price seems attractive, but it does not rule out further market down.”
Although China’s January-July trade data shows that China’s imports are limited, analysts expect data to deteriorate in the coming months.
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According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the growth rate of China’s fixed asset investment slowed to 5.5% in the first seven months, and the slowdown exceeded expectations, highlighting weak domestic demand and corporate confidence in the context of slowing trade with the US. Frustrated.
In July, the added value of China’s industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 6% year-on-year, which was the same as that in June, but the growth rate was lower than market expectations.
US President Trump provoked a trade war that has led several countries to launch tit-for-tat trade measures against the United States.
In the past week, the Turkish lira has fallen sharply to a record low, which has led to global market turmoil.
The market focus returned to the impact of the Turkish lira’s plunge on more emerging markets, causing global stock markets to fall and the dollar to rise. Investors are also concerned about the level of insurance in the European banking industry in Turkey and are selling off emerging market assets.
The US dollar index rose above 96.9, the first time in June 2017.
A higher dollar means that dollar-denominated commodity prices become more expensive for investors holding other currencies.
Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at Markets.com, said, “It is hard to believe that the Turkish authorities are prepared to take some sensible monetary and fiscal measures to deal with the crisis.”
The world’s largest copper mine, the Chilean Escondida union, said on Wednesday that union members would look at the latest labor contract proposal from BHP Billiton (BHP) to avoid planned strikes.
Prior to this, the two sides conducted a six-day negotiation after the government intervened to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 44-day strike last year. At that time, the global copper market was severely affected and dragged Chile’s economic growth.
The union said on Tuesday that some key issues have been agreed with the company, but it will take another day to solve other problems.
ING said in a report, “The market has already predicted that the mine will have a strike action, but it seems that the negotiations between the labor and management sides have made progress.”
Three-month aluminum closed down 2.2% at $2,025 a tonne.
Three-month zinc fell 6.3% to $2,300 a tonne, and the contract hit $2,291 per tonne, the lowest since October 2016.
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Three-month lead plummeted 7.1% to $1,927 a tonne, the biggest one-day drop in about seven years. The intraday contract fell to a low of $1,919.50 per tonne since October 2016.
Three-month nickel fell 4.3% to $12,850 a tonne, the lowest level in six months.
Three-month tin closed down 3.2% at $18,405 per tonne.