Copper rises on Hormuz supply disruption fears

Copper prices rose on Tuesday as the latest escalation in the Middle East conflict revived supply-chain risk premiums. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange climbed 0.2% to $13,568.5 a metric ton by 0700 GMT. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 1.06% to 104,390 yuan per ton. U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran have announced competing blockades of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. has renewed its strikes on Iran, and tankers have come under attack in the vital waterway. The escalation is a "double-edged sword" for copper, Chinese broker Everbright Futures said, as supply fears support prices but growth risks hurt demand. Particularly, supply chains could be squeezed by further sulphur supply shortages, the broker said. The Middle East accounts for about a quarter of global sulphur supply, making sulphuric acid a key risk for copper and nickel supply chains. Sulphuric acid is used in copper leaching, a process that extracts metal from ore, and tighter supply could raise costs even as weaker growth clouds demand. Oil prices jumped to their highest level in four weeks but remained below their peaks at the height of the conflict. Higher energy prices also support energy-intensive metals such as aluminium and nickel, analysts at Sucden Financial said. On the LME, aluminium increased 0.62%, while on the SHFE it rose 1.35%. Nickel, which is also vulnerable to sulphuric acid prices, was up 0.17% on the LME and 0.66% on the SHFE. Renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran have rekindled fears that higher energy and input costs would force policymakers to raise interest rates to tame inflation, thereby dampening demand for growth-dependent industrial metals such as copper by stifling economic activity. Among other LME metals, zinc advanced 0.36%, lead rose 0.37% and tin climbed 2.23%. On the SHFE, zinc was down 0.04%, lead lost 0.63% and tin gained 1.17%.