The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped 0.4 percent to settle at 51,630 yuan ($7,878) a tonne on Tuesday with risk appetite curbed by escalating trade tensions between the United States and top industrial metals consumer China. "Rising trade tensions once again weighed on the base metals sector," ANZ said in a note.
"Soft fundamental data also exacerbated the weakness. Zinc led the sector lower, after data showed the market was in surplus for the first four months of the year." In China, zinc prices fell to their lowest since early August at 22,380 yuan a tonne. The US-China trade spat is putting pressure on commodity and financial markets.
A government official told Reuters on Sunday that the Treasury was drafting curbs that would block firms with at least 25 percent Chinese ownership from buying US companies with "industrially significant technology."