METALS-Copper falls on Trump's announcement on steep 50% import tariff

By Hongmei Li

SINGAPORE, July 9 (Reuters) - Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell on Wednesday, as traders may not have sufficient time to ship much to the United States with Trump's sudden announcement of a 50% copper import tariff on Tuesday.

Three-month copper on the LME CMCU3 softened 0.57% to $9,735 per metric ton by 0109 GMT, and the most-traded copper contract on the SHFE SCFcv1 fell 0.49% to 79,090 yuan a ton.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will announce a 50% tariff on copper on Tuesday, hoping to boost U.S. production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, power grids and many consumer goods, and U.S. Comex copper futures jumped more than 12% to a record high afterwards.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said afterwards that the copper tariffs would likely be put in place by the end of July or August 1.

"The announcement is like a loud thunder in the middle of the night, very sudden, and a 50% tariff is much higher than the expected 25%," a Beijing-based metal analyst from a futures company said.

Analysts expect the premium of the COMEX-LME to widen further, probably as high as $3,000 a ton, to fully factor in the 50% tariff in the coming days, though the shipment window will be very tight should traders plan to rush copper to the U.S.

"A higher premium could be through higher COMEX prices or lower LME-SHFE prices, now the pressure seems on LME and SHFE," the Beijing analyst said.

LME nickel CMNI3 fell 0.18% to $15,015 a ton, lead CMPB3 down 0.17% to $2,053, while tin CMSN3 gained 0.31% to $33,500, zinc CMZN3 went up 0.29% at $2,728.5, and aluminium CMAL3 edged 0.23% higher to $2,592.

SHFE nickel SNIcv1 fell 1.04% to 119,340 yuan a ton, while lead SPBcv1 gained 0.85% to 17,260 yuan, zinc SZNcv1 went up 0.52% to 22,120 yuan, aluminium SAFcv1 went up 0.22% to 20,540 yuan, and tin inched up 0.2% to 264,780 yuan.

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