Thirteen consecutive down days in New York saw copper for delivery in March pushed down 14% in value, last trading at $2.4875 a pound ($5,485 a tonne) on the Comex market in New York.

Volumes were massive, with the equivalent of 3.1 billion pounds of copper (1.4m tonnes) traded by mid-afternoon on Monday. If the metal closes below $2.50 it would be the lowest level since mid-May 2017.

In a research note, Moody’s Capital Markets Research chief economist John Lonski said that a coronavirus pandemic (and the declaration of the outbreak as such seems imminent) would be a “black swan like no other.”

A coronavirus pandemic would be even more of a “black swan” than the global financial crisis and Great Recession of 2008-2009.

Unlike the U.S. home mortgage meltdown, no one predicted the early 2020 arrival of a potentially devastating pandemic.

And unlike the financial crisis, public-health and economic policymakers may be limited regarding their ability to remedy or offset a 1918 (or Spanish flu) type pandemic.

Moody’s says due to the outsize role of China in global industrial activity and the sluggishness evident in the base metals complex even before the outbreak, the impact of a full-blown pandemic would be considerable.

The industrial metals price index [before the outbreak] was not even close to mimicking its recovery following the global slowdown and profits recession of 2015-2016.

Simply getting the monthly averages down to their respective lows of 2015-2016’s profits recession would drop the base metals price index by 26% and sink the price of WTI crude oil by 43% from their recent readings.

Copper prices bottomed at $1.94 a pound in January 2016 and averaged $2.21 for the year, the lowest annual average price since 2005. Zinc price fell to a low of $1,453 a tonne that same month while nickel’s lowest point came in February of 2016 at $7,725 a tonne.

Separately, an eight-year old girl and her parents, who returned from Erlian in northern China, have also tested negative on coronavirus infection. They have been quarantined at the NCCD after the child, who had a high temperature and the parents began coughing.

At the unveiling event, Bars Motors CEO D.Demberel said, “Germany, USA, France and Japan dominated the automotive industry in the 20th century. Mongolia spends a great deal of money on imported cars. Our goal now is to gain prominence in the regional automotive industry”

Recent tests have proven that the SUV thoroughly suits Mongolia’s extreme climate and the people’s needs and the automobile is expected to go on sale within this year.

Mr. D.Demberel also pointed out that the car’s 1.5 liter turbocharged engine not only delivers great fuel efficiency, but also ensures stable operation on rough terrains. “It uses up to 10 liters of fuel per 100 km in city driving in the winter and 6 liters/100 km in highway driving in the summer,” he said.

Moreover, the first 100 orders come with a 5-year guarantee and the first 100 purchasers are allowed to exchange their MOZO for an electric car, which the company is planning to produce, after five years.

In 2019, the National Action Plan development working group was established by the order of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, involving relevant organizations. Livio Sarandrea's visit to Mongolia aimed to disseminate the concept of "UN Business and Human Rights Principles", to ensure active involvement of government, non-governmental organizations and businesses in the process of developing national plan, to realistically assess the impact of business activities on human rights and to properly identify their goals.

During the visit of Livio Sarandrea, the working group set to cooperate in a certain way with the project which is being implemented at regional level.

The administration will strictly ban activities such as raising coal prices beyond their contracts, refusing to fulfil medium-to-long term contracts or restricting coal sales outside the production areas, it said in a statement on its website.

Local governments in Inner Mongolia region and Shanxi province, the top two coal mining regions in China, have asked their coal companies not to sell the fuel outside the areas to reduce transportation and to prevent the spread of the virus.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu, Judy Hua and Se Young Lee Editing by Shri Navaratnam).

Chen Kuei-jen (陳貴人), manager of the Taipower Football Team, said the team was originally scheduled to board a flight to the Mongolian capital Sunday morning.

They were stopped at the airline counter, however, and told that the Mongolian government has barred Taiwanese citizens from entering the country to prevent the spread of the epidemic, which is centered in China but seen as a global public health emergency.

Fan Ching-ren (方靖仁), the secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA), told CNA that the Mongolian side said the decision was part of Mongolia's epidemic response policy barring visitors from the "Chinese area," which includes China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

The CTFA and Taiwan's Foreign Ministry are currently in talks with the Mongolian side to try to convince it to revoke its travel restriction on Taiwan, Fan said.

"Taiwan is not part of China, and this is a matter of national dignity," he said.

Chen, meanwhile, said the team has rescheduled its flight to Ulaanbaatar for Monday morning and is currently staying at a hotel in Taoyuan waiting for the Mongolian side's response on the matter.

The team was heading to Mongolia to participate in a AFC Cup match against a Mongolian club on Feb. 5.

The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation.

Mongolia's government announced Friday that it would ban Chinese nationals and foreigners coming from China by plane, train or road to prevent the spread of the 2019-nCoV that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, according to an AFP report.

The ban will be enforced from Feb. 1 until March 2, according to a government statement, which also said Mongolians will be prohibited from traveling to China during the same period, the AFP report said.

(By Long Po-an and Joseph Yeh)

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Chief Executive of Mongolian Investment Banking (MIGB) Group LLC, Bilguun Ankhbayar talked about the current economic situation of Mongolia amid deadly flulike virus, which had been first confirmed in Wuhan, China. It is threatening the country’s economy as well as international businesses all around the world.

-How will the coronavirus affect the commodity market?

-The commodity market index is changing drastically changing due to the price rate of consumer goods. The consumer price index is fluctuating due to emerging social and economic problems.

-Will the current situation emerged in China slow down the construction work and the steel industry. How will it affect Mongolia?

-According to a survey presented before the virus, the world economic growth was expected to cool this year. During the Lunar New Year of China, the transport sector declined about 25-45 percent. This will have a negative effect on Mongolia’s export.

-The gold price has been increasing in the last year. Is there any risk in trade?

-There is a high risk, since Mongolia imports as much as 90 percent of its consumer goods from China. Foreign reserves have increased relatively compared to 2016 but the country may face the financial crisis in 2020 due to the Government of Mongolia and the central bank’s foreign debt repayment. Also, currencies of China, Thailand, and Korea are devaluing. Uncertainty in the market has been growing as well.

-The partnership between the private and public sectors is crucial in encouraging economic growth. How is the private sector cooperation in the coal industry?

-Mongolia’s GDP equals USD 11-12 dollars, which was mainly contributed by the imports of coal, and copper to China in the last decade. Foreign direct investment and foreign aids contribute too. Even though we’re making much effort in export, the economy is not growing significantly. Also, the currency rate is lowering year by year. In order to fix this, we need to attract more foreign investments. It is also fundamental to focus on the global explorational trend in mining. The gold industry will be in spot in 2020 and 2021. Mongolia should find a way of luring cobalt, lithium, and zinc-based investment. Electric power is likely to be in trend than the oil-based power sources as the electricity is evolving globally. Therefore, uranium price is expected to increase further in 2020. Mongolia’s economy has the potential to grow as a result of the right policy.

The decision was made following an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which carrying out an Extended Fund Facility arrangement with Mongolia.

The general guidelines on monetary policy for 2020 outline that a national program on mortgage loan will be approved by the Bank of Mongolia, Government, and Financial Regulatory Commission with a view to ensure stable implementation of the mortgage loan program and central bank officials said the sides will keep working to reduce the cost of the mortgage loan and improve its accessibility.

In December 2019, 1365 new borrowers received mortgage loans worth MNT 112 billion. Of them, 56.3 percent was sourced from the mortgage loan program and 43.7 percent was taken from the commercial banks’ own funding. The weighted average interest rate of the newly issued mortgage loans reduced by 1.1 percentage.