London Metal Exchange (LME) copper rose during the Asian electronic trading period on Monday as the demand outlook of China, the leading metal consumer, improved. However, the Fed’s interest rate hike may damage the slowdown of global economic growth or even plunge into recession, and continue to limit the growth of industrial metals.

As of noon on Monday in Beijing, LME’s benchmark three-month copper rose 0.5% to US $8420 per ton. On the last trading day, it fell to the lowest point of $8122.5 since February 2021.

At the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most active August copper fell 390 yuan, or 0.6%, to 64040 yuan per ton.

In China, Shanghai announced victory in the fight against the epidemic, which helped to improve market sentiment and boost China’s economic growth expectations.

Data released on Monday showed that with the resumption of activities in China’s major manufacturing centers, the profit reduction rate of Chinese industrial enterprises slowed down in May.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve may speed up interest rate hikes to curb inflation, which is at a 40 year high. It is worrying that US economic growth will slow down or even slide into recession.

Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its forecasts for U.S. economic growth because the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hike cooled demand, but the MF predicted that the United States would “reluctantly” avoid recession.

Maximo m á Ximo Pacheco, chairman of Codelco, a state-owned copper company in Chile, said in Santiago that despite the recent sharp decline in copper prices, the company believes that copper prices will remain strong in the future.