Aluminum and copper prices retreated on Tuesday in the face of the concern of investors that new US tariffs and a possible worldwide commercial war slow down economic growth and metal demand.
Three -month aluminum in the London metal bag (LME) lowered 0.6% to 2,642.50 dollars the metric ton at 11:00 GMT, while copper fell 1.1% to $ 9,344.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, elevated on Monday the tariffs to the imports of steel and aluminum at 25% fixed “without exceptions or exemptions”, which creates the risk of unleashing a commercial war on several fronts.
“It is potentially quite detrimental to the American economy, because if you put tariffs on the world, aluminum, steel and also the semis, you only damage the manufacture of downstream,” said Dan Smith, head of Amalgamated Metal Trading research.
Smith was referring to semi -impaired aluminum because Trump’s action also extends tariffs to derived products that use metal manufactured abroad.
“Then, phase two are the reprisals of other countries. American imports are huge, but their exports have also grown a lot, so they will continue to be affected by all this.”
The United States depends largely on imported aluminum, especially in Canada.
“We hope that any tariff leads to higher prices for American manufacturers. This would be more likely in the form of higher premiums in the middle of the United States instead of a sustained rise in the price of the LME,” said Anz Research.
The premium of the futures of the American copper Comex on the contract LME shot on Monday until reaching a historical maximum for the fear that copper will also be affected by US tariffs.
The premium dropped to $ 800 a ton from 930 dollars on Monday, but continues to double the level of a week ago.
Among other basic metals, Zinc Lme lowered 1.2% to $ 2,813, nickel fell 1.6% to $ 15,280, lead yielded 1.2% to $ 1,975.50 and tin lost 0.8% to $ 30,900.
