METALS-LME copper eases on Trump's tariff threats on automobiles, semiconductor chips

Feb 19 (Reuters) - London copper eased on Wednesday, following U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose 25% tariffs on automobiles and semiconductor chips, which could weigh on the metal's demand.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) CMCU3 eased 0.3% to $9,446 a metric ton by 0156 GMT.

Trump said on Tuesday he intends to impose auto tariffs "in the neighborhood of 25%" and similar duties on semiconductors and pharmaceutical imports, the latest in a series of measures threatening to upend international trade.

Trump said sectoral tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips would also start at "25% or higher, and it will go very substantially higher over the course of a year."

"Trump is actually considering implementing further tariffs on auto, he suggested the idea of a 25% increase, which could lead to a slowdown in global growth and may result in disruptions to the global supply chain. Such disruptions could cause copper to experience some weakness going forward," said Kelvin Wong, OANDA's senior market analyst, Asia Pacific.

"We think President Trump is more motivated to impose tariffs on copper in his second term because of the metal's growing importance to key emerging global competitive industries like the energy transition and AI," Citi said.

Meanwhile, Freeport Indonesia has requested the government relax its copper export ban and allow the miner to export 1.3 million tons of copper concentrate until December, worth about $5 billion.

Aluminium CMAL3 on the LME was down 0.4% to $2,659 a ton, zinc CMZN3 rose 0.1% to $2,888 and nickel CMNI3 gained 0.1% to $15,370, while tin CMSN3 fell 0.1% to $32,745, lead CMPB3 lost 0.3% to $1,990.5.

SHFE aluminium SAFcv1 rose 0.4% to 20,715 yuan ($2,844.22)a ton, SHFE copper SCFcv1 firmed 0.6% to 77,260 yuan, nickel SNIcv1 was steady at 123,970 yuan, zinc SZNcv1 gained 0.5% to 24,005 yuan, lead SPBcv1 fell 0.5% to 17,085 yuan and tin SSNcv1 lost 0.4% to 261,300 yuan.

($1 = 7.2832 Chinese yuan renminbi)

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