SYDNEY -- Investors across Asia dumped commodities on Thursday amid mounting economic fears, driving once-coveted industrial staples such as copper and aluminium to fresh multi-year lows.
Oil though managed to hold up ahead of an emergency OPEC meeting on Friday expected to lead to an agreement to cut output.
Gloomy demand prospects, questions over China's growth and a stronger US dollar were increasingly taking a toll on a wide range of commodities, some of which sold for record high prices earlier this year.
"There is still room for prices to fall even though many are below marginal costs of production," Yingxi Yu, an analyst at Barclays Capital, said of industrial metals.
Much of the concern centred on China's ability to continue to absorb the lion's share of imported raw materials after signalling a slowdown in growth this week.
China's economic growth recoiled to 9.0 percent in the third quarter from 10.1 percent in the previous three months.
The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global commodities benchmark, dropped to a fresh four-year low.
Gold fell to the lowest price in 13 months -- $718.20 an ounce -- after a rout in equities forced some investors to sell bullion to cover losses. Platinum slipped almost 6.0 percent to $782.50 an ounce, the lowest since July 2004.
"Whilst gold, you might think, should benefit from a safe haven perspective, the downward pressures are dominating it at present," said Darren Heathcote of Investec Australia.
GRINDING TO A HALT
Growth in China's steel output was slowing to a crawl this year, Shan Shanghua, secretary general of China Iron and Steel Association, told an international conference in Qingdao, China, adding growth in the sector worldwide was grinding to a halt.
Chinese steel mills have already cut output by up to 20 percent, leaving imported iron ore to pile up at dockyards and causing shipping costs to collapse.
US crude oil futures rose 63 cents to $67.38 a barrel by 0542 GMT.
Iran's oil minister was the latest to weigh in with a call for an output cut from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, saying the cartel needs to cut output by two million barrels per day.
A week-long slide in base metals continued, with copper down 7.0 percent to a fresh three-year bottom of $3,870 a ton and nickel hitting a five-year low of $9,200.
Other LME metals also lost ground. Aluminium fell 1.4 percent to $1,975 as worries about oversupply overcame mounting expectations of large-scale cutbacks from producers struggling with shrinking margins.
Shanghai copper fell by its 6.0 percent limit to 33,900 yuan a ton, its weakest since August 2005, and zinc also shed 6.0 percent to a new lifetime low of 9,210 yuan.
US wheat, corn and soy prices rose slightly, though analysts said falls could resume as financial concerns persist.
Dalian Commodity Exchange soybeans traded down to the 5.0 percent daily limit, tracking Chicago Board of Trade futures on Wednesday.
They said the market was also unsure about Beijing's plan to buy 1.0-1.5 million tons for reserves.
"The amount was too small to support prices. And people doubted if the government was willing to buy more in future," said Liu Defeng, a dealer with China CIFCO Futures Co. Ltd. Tokyo rubber futures fell 7 percent, while Malaysian crude palm oil futures tumbled 5.5 percent, hurt by weaker US and Chinese soy oil markets and fears of slower exports, traders said.
