London copper eased on Wednesday as US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on automobiles and semiconductor chips raised concerns of about metal demand. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) eased 0.6% to $9,418 a metric ton by 0423 GMT.

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

He said sectoral tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips would also start at “25% or higher”, rising substantially over the course of a year.

“Trump is actually considering implementing further tariffs on auto… 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.

Citi said 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 energy transition and artificial intelligence.

On the geopolitical front, Trump’s administration said on Tuesday it had agreed to hold more talks with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine after an initial meeting that excluded Kyiv, a departure from Washington’s previous approach that rallied US allies to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Surplus metal, weak demand prospects weigh on copper

LME aluminium was down 0.4% to $2,657 a ton, zinc was steady at $2,884 and nickel lost 0.3% to $15,310, while tin fell 0.5% to $32,630 and lead lost 0.7% to $1,983.

SHFE aluminium rose 0.2% to 20,665 yuan ($2,837.39) a ton, SHFE copper firmed 0.2% to 76,920 yuan, nickel fell 0.2% to 123,720 yuan, zinc eased 0.1% to 23,875 yuan, lead fell 1.2% to 16,960 yuan and tin lost 0.6% to 260,880 yuan.