Copper metal price on February 12: continues to increase

Copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 1.1%.

Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 0.6% to $2,642.50 a tonne, while copper fell 1.1% to $9,344.

US President Donald Trump significantly increased tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Monday to a flat rate of 25% “with no exceptions or exemptions,” threatening to spark a trade war on multiple fronts.

“This has the potential to be quite damaging to the US economy , because if you put tariffs on everyone, on aluminum, steel and semi-finished products, you’re just hurting downstream manufacturing,” said Dan Smith, head of research at Amalgamated Metals Trading.

Smith was referring to semi-finished aluminum because the U.S. action also extends tariffs to downstream products that use foreign-made metal.

US primary aluminium prices, based on the LME benchmark plus a Midwest premium, rose 3% to 35 cents/lb, the highest since May 2022, after rising 10% on Monday. Prices have risen 60% since US President Donald Trump was elected.

“We expect any tariffs to result in higher prices for US producers. This will most likely take the form of higher Midwest premiums rather than sustained increases in LME prices,” ANZ Research said.

The premium of US Comex copper futures over the LME contract jumped to a record high on Monday on concerns that copper would also be hit with tariffs.

The premium has fallen to $800 a tonne from $930 on Monday, but is still double the level of a week ago.

Among other metals, LME zinc fell 1.2% to $2,813, nickel fell 1.6% to $15,280, lead fell 1.2% to $1,975.50 and tin fell 0.8% to $30,900.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/gia-kim-loai-dong-ngay-12-2-tiep-tuc-tang.html