Industrial metals, used across a wide range of sectors, fell on Tuesday, as a surge of infections by the Delta variant of the coronavirus globally threatened a sustainable economic recovery.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.3 percent to $9,673 a ton, aluminum was down 0.6 percent to $2,600.50 a ton, nickel dropped 0.9 percent to $19,345 a ton and zinc shed 1.3 percent to $3,010 a ton.
The most-traded September copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1 percent to 70,840 yuan ($10,959.33) a ton, nickel dropped 1.4 percent to 143,630 yuan a ton, zinc lost 1.6 percent to 22,215 yuan a ton and aluminum was down 0.9 percent to 19,785 yuan a ton.
“Concerns about the Delta variant in both China and the United States are weighing on the markets,” said commodities broker Anna Stablum of Marex Spectron.– Reuters
