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Lockdowns imposed to control the coronavirus have battered China’s appetite for everything from coal to copper, pushing stockpiles of raw materials higher and global prices lower. The next crunch could come from supply. The risk of an outbreak is growing in ill-prepared producer countries, with mandatory quarantines and border shutdowns threatening to choke off production.
Prices of bulk commodities are already seeing some support from such disruptions, as ports and mines close. Coking coal in particular has outperformed owing in part to Mongolia’s decision in late January to seal its border with China, which cut off a key source of supply. The impact may be only short term. With factory shutdowns spreading through the US and Europe, the reduction in wider metals supply would need to be dramatic to offset crumbling global demand. Upheaval could provide some price support regardless.
Appetite for virtually all commodities has slumped since January, when the extent of damage from the novel coronavirus became clear. Even where mills, smelters and factories stayed open, that largely translated into crammed warehouses. China’s industrial production, investment and retail sales for the first two months of the year plunged across the board, with construction weak. China’s economy is now all but certain to contract in the first quarter from a year earlier.
With European automakers and other manufacturers shuttering operations, the drop in commodity demand in the first three months is likely to be even worse than during the global financial crisis. Steel demand will fall more than a fifth, copper will slide 14% and aluminum almost a third, analysts at BMO Capital Markets estimate.
It hasn’t helped futures prices that the latest wave of closures is coming as we head into the second quarter, usually a peak period for demand. China, by contrast, was worse hit during the quieter Lunar New Year. Copper, a bellwether of confidence in global manufacturing, has tumbled to four-year lows of around $4,800 per metric ton on the London Metal Exchange.
Travel and quarantine restrictions have already damaged supply, making it harder for miners to fly employees in and out and impeding projects under construction. Peru’s quarantine has already prompted Anglo American to stop all nonessential work at its $5 billion Quellaveco project and withdraw most of the site’s 10,000 staff and contractors. Canada’s Teck Resources has suspended work at its Quebrada Blanca Phase 2 in Chile, while Rio Tinto Group says work has slowed on its underground mine at Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia.
Lockdowns may be even more severe. Copper mines are among the worst affected as Chile and Peru, the world’s top two producers, scramble to contain the virus, prompting Anglo American, Antofagasta and others to send staff home. Chilean state behemoth Codelco will work at reduced capacity for two weeks, while workers at BHP Group’s Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, threatened action to compel the company to take more preventative steps.
—Bloomberg