Copper is again being pulled into a trade distortion created by U.S. tariff expectations. Traders are searching for metal across global markets and redirecting available supplies toward the United States because New York prices have moved sharply above international benchmarks.

The spread between Comex copper and London Metal Exchange prices has reopened wide enough to make shipments to the U.S. profitable, reviving a trade that has repeatedly disrupted the global copper market over the past year.

Japan’s decision to open an anti-dumping investigation into steel imports from China, South Korea and Taiwan is another sign that the global steel market is moving deeper into a protectionist phase. The probe will cover hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil, strip and sheet, a group of flat steel products used across major industrial sectors including automobiles, appliances, machinery, packaging, construction materials and equipment manufacturing.

The investigation was requested by Japan’s leading steelmakers, including Nippon Steel and JFE Steel, which argue that imported products are being sold at prices far below fair market value.

China’s new outbound investment directive marks a significant tightening of Beijing’s control over how Chinese capital, technology, data and expertise move abroad. The regulation, issued by the State Council and set to take effect on July 1, is designed to strengthen national security reviews of overseas investments and consolidate a patchwork of existing rules that had been spread across agencies such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

In practical terms, it gives Beijing more power to decide which foreign deals Chinese companies and individuals can pursue, especially when those deals involve sensitive technology, data, services or strategic assets.

Tin has become one of the strangest stories in the industrial metals market. On conventional supply-and-demand measures, the market looks as if it should be cooling. Mine output is recovering, visible inventories are rising, exchange spreads do not point to an acute shortage, and consumption is expected to soften this year.

Yet prices remain close to historic highs. The London Metal Exchange three-month tin contract is trading above $55,000 a metric ton, not far from the all-time peak reached during January’s broad metals rally and well above the previous record set during the market shock that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

China’s seaborne crude oil imports collapsed to their lowest level in nearly a decade in May, falling to 6.36 million barrels per day from 8.10 million in April and representing the weakest monthly figure since October 2016.

The decline from February’s 11.39 million barrels per day, the last full month before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, amounts to a staggering 5.5 million barrels per day reduction in just three months, a contraction so severe that it points to forces far beyond the routine import adjustments that normally characterize Chinese crude procurement.

Indonesia formally launched its transition to a centralized commodity export system on Monday, beginning with coal, palm oil, and ferroalloys, as the government sought to reassure a rattled business community by pledging transparency and accountability in the state company that will eventually become the sole exporter of the nation’s most important resources.

The transition marks the first operational phase of President Prabowo Subianto’s sweeping plan to route all strategic commodity exports through Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia, a new entity overseen by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, with full implementation scheduled to begin no later than January 2027.

France has secured a record 93 billion euros in corporate investment pledges at this year’s Choose France summit, spanning seventy-one projects and projected to create more than 15,600 jobs, with the headline commitment being SoftBank’s massive 45-billion-euro investment in three data centers totaling 3.1 gigawatts of capacity in the Hauts-de-France region.

The Japanese technology conglomerate’s commitment, which could rise to 75 billion euros, represents one of the largest single AI infrastructure investments announced in Europe and validates President Macron’s strategy of leveraging France’s nuclear power fleet to position the country as a premier destination for the energy-intensive computing infrastructure that artificial intelligence requires.

China’s steel exports to India have surged again despite New Delhi’s attempt to shield its domestic producers with import tariffs, exposing the limits of India’s trade defenses at a time when global steel flows are being distorted by weak Chinese demand and the Iran war.

Provisional Indian government data showed that China shipped about 232,000 metric tons of finished steel to India in April, more than double the previous level and the highest monthly volume in at least two years. China became the largest supplier of finished steel to India that month, even though India had imposed tariffs on some steel grades in December for a three-year period.