• 323 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 328 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 330 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 333 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 333 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 334 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 336 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 336 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 340 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 340 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 341 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 344 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 344 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 347 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 348 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 348 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 350 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
  • 351 days Europe’s Economy Is On The Brink As Putin’s War Escalates
  • 354 days What’s Causing Inflation In The United States?
  • 355 days Intel Joins Russian Exodus as Chip Shortage Digs In
The Secret Life Of Lithium

The Secret Life Of Lithium

The Sun is likely to…

New Breakthrough Could Transform Rare Earth Mining

New Breakthrough Could Transform Rare Earth Mining

Researchers at the University of…

Mining.com

Mining.com

Mining.com

MINING.com is a web-based global mining publication focusing on news and commentary about mining and mineral exploration. The site is a one-stop-shop for mining industry…

Contact Author

  1. Home
  2. Commodities
  3. Industrial Metals

Copper Slides Under Coronavirus Concerns

Copper Slides

The copper price dropped further on Monday as the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China, where 40 million people are now under lockdown in the central part of the country, added to worries about slowing economic growth in the globe’s top commodities importer.

Seven consecutive down days in New York saw copper for delivery in March losing 7.2 percent in value, falling to a seven-week low of $2.678 a pound ($5,905 a tonne) in New York. 

Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics in London said in a research note previous epidemics, such as the outbreak of SARS in February 2003, may offer a rough guide on what to expect going forward:

Back then, the Goldman Sachs Commodity Price index initially shed more than a tenth of its value, but this loss was fully recovered a few months after the disease was brought under control in July 2003.

Cooling economy

China imports more than half the world’s copper and controls more than three-quarters of the seaborne iron ore trade.  

Iron ore stabilized after losing 3.4 percent yesterday with benchmark  Northern China import prices for 62 percent Fe fines tracked by Fastmarkets MB pegged at $93.71 a tonne on Friday.

Capital Economics said even before the coronavirus outbreak, cooling property construction was likely to weigh on economic activity and industrial metals and minerals prices in China in the coming quarters.

Global copper output has fallen, and full-year imports of refined copper fell six percent in 2019, but concentrate imports surged to 22 million tonnes an 11.6 percent gain on record imports the year before. Chinese imports of iron ore topped 1 billion tonnes for the third year in a row in 2019.

By Mining.com 

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment