Shanghai base metals dropped sharply on Thursday, with copper and zinc plumbing fresh one-year lows after a broad sell-off in London in the previous session before bouncing back slightly on news of fresh US-China trade talks.
Markets continue to be spooked by global trade tensions, fearing they could hurt demand for industrial metals, while a deal to avoid a strike at the Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world's largest, has removed a pillar of support for prices.
The most-traded October copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell as much as 3.3 percent to its lowest since June 2017 before closing down 2.6 percent at 47,580 yuan ($6,891.46) a tonne.
Shanghai zinc slumped as much as 5.3 percent to 19,525 yuan a tonne, its lowest since June 2017, before closing down 3.7 percent on 19,860 yuan. In London, the metal was up 2.4 percent, having slid 6.3 percent in the previous session and hit its lowest since October 2016. China's July zinc output fell 3.5 pct year-on-year to 439,000 tonnes, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, its lowest monthly total since August 2013. Shanghai Lead ended down 2.3 percent.
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