MANILA, July 11 (Reuters) - Copper, zinc and lead prices
slumped to their weakest in about a year and other metals also
sank in a broad selloff on Wednesday after the United States
raised the stakes in a trade war with China with threats of more
tariffs.
The Trump administration said it would slap 10 percent
tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese imports,
raising fears the festering trade dispute between the world's
two biggest economies could hit global growth.
"There certainly is going to be pronounced risks mainly
because we've now moved on to the tit-for-tat-for-tit phase of
it," said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at
Mizuho Bank in Singapore.
Last week, Washington imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34
billion of Chinese imports and Beijing responded immediately
with matching tariffs on the same amount of U.S. exports to
China.
"This is going to drag on until they can all come to the
table and agree to even the playing field. But the
unpredictability of the situation continues to rattle the
markets," said Varathan.
Metals fell the most among commodities, with nickel, tin and
aluminium dropping to multi-month lows.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange
dropped as much as 4 percent to $6,081 a tonne, its lowest since
July last year. It was down 3 percent at $6,141.50 by 0710 GMT.
On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-traded copper
fell as much as 47,520 yuan ($7,135) a tonne, its
weakest since June last year, before closing at 48,120 yuan,
down 3.4 percent.
Zinc dropped by its 6 percent downside limit in Shanghai
to 20,620 yuan per tonne, the lowest since June last
year. It fell as much as 4.8 percent to $2,503 in London
, the lowest since June 2017.
LME lead slid by up to 4 percent to $2,220 a tonne,
the lowest since July last year.
* U.S. TARIFFS: U.S. officials released a list on Tuesday of
thousands of Chinese imports the Trump administration wants to
hit with the tariffs, including hundreds of food products as
well as tobacco, chemicals, coal, steel and aluminium.
* CHINA RESPONSE: China's assistant commerce minister said
on Wednesday that the latest proposed tariffs from the United
States harms the World Trade Organization system and hurts
globalization.
* MARKETS: China's shares tumbled and the dollar rose to
near an 11-month high against the yuan while the Australian
dollar dropped along with other Asian equities.
* OTHER METALS: Other metals also slid to multi-month lows,
with LME nickel down 3.3 percent and aluminium
down 1.5 percent. In Shanghai, nickel closed 2.6
percent lower and lead fell 2 percent.
