LONDON: Copper prices fell on Thursday and were down almost 20% in the second quarter, the biggest quarterly fall since 2011, after COVID lockdowns in China and slowing economic growth curtailed demand.
Other industrial metals were also headed for their biggest quarterly fall in several years, down between 20% and 40%.
Many analysts fear further declines in the near term, as central banks push ahead with rapid interest rate rises that will stifle growth.
“We still see metals falling as a recession in the U.S. is fully priced in,” said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was down 1.1% at $8,306 a tonne by 1047 GMT and down 19.9% since the start of April.
Copper fell 19.8% in the first quarter of 2020, when COVID-19 spread worldwide. There has been no other quarterly plunge on that scale since 2011.
Briesemann said copper could slip as low as $7,000-$7,500 in Q3, but prices should rise towards the year-end.
