Industrial metal prices dropped on Monday, with copper touching a more than one-month low, as prospects of bigger US interest rate hikes and continued lockdowns in top consumer China fuelled worries over a global economic slowdown.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 1 percent at $10,010 a ton, after falling to its lowest since March 16 at $9,982 earlier in the session.
The most-active May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 1.3 percent to 73,980 yuan ($11,307.26) by the midday break.
“Copper is a bellwether for economic conditions and in addition to the Fed raising rates expected to slow the US economy, traders are also likely reading more yuan weakness, which will lead to higher import costs,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
“Also, no signs of more Chinese stimulus yet means less economic recovery. So, those are two gusty headwinds, hence commodities are rolling over.”
Lockdowns in more than a dozen cities across China, including the financial hub of Shanghai, have heightened worries over wider disruption to activity in the world’s second-largest economy.
