BEIJING, July 10 (Reuters) - London copper gave up early
gains to trade lower on Tuesday, while zinc slumped to its
lowest in more than a year, as a metals rally driven by
investors looking for bargains after a trade war-fuelled
sell-off appeared to run out of steam.
The United States on Friday slapped tariffs on $34 billion
of goods from top metals consumer China, which responded in
kind. Fears that the trade spat could dampen demand for
industrial metals had weighed on prices.
Zinc was one of the worst hit metals, falling by 4.2 percent
in London and above 5.3 percent in Shanghai last week, with the
declines continuing on Tuesday.
"A lot of zinc concentrate is coming on line from mines
across the world," this year, said Helen Lau, an analyst at
Argonaut Securities in Hong Kong, adding that demand for zinc in
steel galvanising in China was seeing "a bit of a slowdown."
FUNDAMENTALS
* ZINC: Three-month zinc on the London Metal Exchange
sank as much as 2.8 percent to $2,630.50 a tonne, its
lowest since June 22, 2017. Shanghai zinc closed down
2.2 percent at 21,755 yuan ($3,289.58) a tonne.
* LME COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper slipped
0.7 percent to $6,348 a tonne, as of 0742 GMT, following a
1.7-percent gain from the previous session. The metal lost more
than 5 percent last week.
* SHFE COPPER: The most-traded September copper contract on
the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 0.4 percent at
49,760 yuan a tonne.
* RUSAL: United Company Rusal, the world's
second-biggest aluminium producer, in May increased aluminium
exports to 197,000 tonnes, up almost threefold from April,
Interfax news agency reported.
* BLOCKCHAIN: Online metal concentrates exchange Open
Mineral is seeking to build a consortium of mining companies and
financial institutions to create a blockchain system for
minerals trading and logistics.
