Industrial metals fall

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Industrial metals were mostly lower in early Asian trading on Monday as COVID-19 curbs in top consumer China clouded demand prospects and added to concerns about supply disruptions, and prompting profit-taking in Shanghai nickel.

Heightened quarantine measures in China, with the financial hub of Shanghai launching a two-stage lockdown of the city of 26 million people on Monday, could further dampen growth outlook for the world’s second-biggest economy.

The benchmark nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange tumbled as much as 15 percent to 213,180 yuan ($33,413.27) a ton, after posting on Friday a record weekly gain.

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Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.6 percent at $10,208 a ton, while the benchmark copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange shed 0.7 percent to 73,090 yuan ($11,466.36) a ton.

Shanghai nickel tumbled as much as 15 percent to 213,180 yuan a ton, after posting on Friday a record weekly gain.

“COVID-19 outbreaks in multiple cities have put China’s metal demand in check,” ING commodity strategists said in a note. “This week, markets and investors will continue to monitor the Covid impact on metals supply and demand.”

They also said liquidity remained thin across the base metals complex due to heightened volatility across commodities.

Meanwhile, India is leaning toward continuing to import coking coal from Russia, the steel minister said on Sunday, seeming to buck a global trend to shun Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

“We are moving in the direction of importing coking coal from Russia,” Ramchandra Prasad Singh told a conference in New Delhi.

India plans to double imports of Russian coking coal, a key ingredient in making steel, the minister said. He said the country had imported 4.5 million tons but did not indicate the period he was referring to.

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