Industrial metals have a lackluster start to 2025, as the market weighs this year's prospects against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions, uncertainty in China's economic recovery path, and rising protectionism, "said Ewa Manthe and Warren Patterson, commodity analysts at ING.

US tariffs and strengthening US dollar may lower industrial metal prices

The US election has further complicated the market outlook as the threat of tariffs on Chinese goods looms over the market. On Monday, after Trump denied his team's plan to implement weaker import tariffs than announced during the campaign, industrial metals fell across the board. We believe that potential US tariffs and a stronger US dollar could further depress industrial metal prices

The request to extract aluminum from the London Metal Exchange warehouse increased by 42850 tons, reaching 380050 tons, the highest level since October 7, 2024. Most of the cancelled reports came from warehouses in Port Klang, Malaysia

At the same time, the exchange inventory of aluminum decreased by 2500 tons to 624275 tons (the lowest level since May 9, 2024), while the inventory in stock decreased by 45350 tons as of yesterday to 244225 tons