Copper prices plunged below $9,000 a ton in the biggest drop since March 2020 as worries over the impact of a worsening trade war sparked a heavy selloff in metals and mining equities.
The bellwether metal fell as much as 6.8 per cent on Friday to $8,734 a ton in London, as losses accelerated across the industrial metals markets following Thursday’s heavy selloff. Copper traded on New York’s Comex also tumbled, on course for the biggest two-day decline since 2011.
It came after China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Beijing will retaliate with a 34 per cent tariff on all imports from the US starting April 10. Major mining companies also plunged, with Glencore Plc, Teck Resources Ltd. and Antofagasta Plc losing more than 10 per cent.
It’s a whipsawing reversal for copper traders, who have up until now been mainly focused on the bullish supply-side impacts of a worldwide push to ship copper to the US before targeted levies on the metal are imposed. But with Trump’s trade barriers on all incoming goods now coming into force, the attention is shifting quickly to the consequences for demand in the US and beyond.
“While we remain structurally bullish copper in the long run, weaker global GDP and copper demand growth risk delaying the deficit we expect to see in the market this year,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a report.
Copper is on track for a drop of about 10 per cent this week, which would be its biggest slide since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. It traded 6 per cent lower at $8,804.50 a ton on the London Metal Exchange as of 4:36 p.m. local time.
Aluminum fell for a 12th straight day, while zinc, lead and nickel also suffered heavy losses this week. Tin also slumped Friday, wiping out a weekly gain driven by concerns about supply disruptions. Chinese markets were closed Friday for a public holiday.
–With assistance from Atul Prakash.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
