By Amrith Ramkumar and David Hodari

Copper prices fell near a fresh year-to-date low on Tuesday after data showed fixed-asset investment in China slowed to a nearly two-decade low in the first seven months of the year and Bloomberg News reported that BHP Billiton Ltd. could avoid worker strikes at the world's largest copper mine.

Copper for September delivery slumped 1.7% to $2.6835 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are down almost 20% from their June four-year highs, hurt by worries that trade tensions between the U.S. and China will accelerate a Chinese economic slowdown, weakening demand for materials used in construction and manufacturing.

China is the world's largest commodity consumer, accounting for about half the world's copper demand. Tuesday's data showed spending on factory machinery, public-works projects and other fixed-asset investments in China's nonrural areas grew 5.5% in the January-July period from a year earlier, matching a record low from 1999.

"The response of metals prices to the data from China is correspondingly negative," Commerzbank analysts said in a note to clients.

Other industrial metals including aluminum, tin and lead also fell on the London Metal Exchange.

As investors have grappled with the prospect of lower copper demand, data has pointed to steady production and disruptions from worker strikes that boosted copper last year haven't materialized.

Copper's losses accelerated Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that the union at Chile's Escondida mine is optimistic about reaching a wage agreement with BHP, potentially ending the prospect of a strike that could lower production. A 44-day strike at Escondida last year helped support copper prices.

Among precious metals, gold for December delivery edged up 0.4% to $1,203.80 a troy ounce, boosted by declines in the dollar. The dollar surging has pushed gold to its lowest level since January 2017 by making the yellow metal more expensive for overseas buyers.

On Tuesday, the WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of 16 other currencies, fell 0.2% after closing at a fresh 15-month high Monday.

Write to Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com and David Hodari at David.Hodari@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 14, 2018 11:02 ET (15:02 GMT)

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