Goldman Sachs on Monday said it expects industrial metals markets to remain vulnerable to incremental softness in the near term due to deteriorating demand and the impact from higher interest rates.

"Building and construction activity remains the weakest segment, but there were downdrafts now noted in volume appetite from most other sectors, with the exception of aerospace," analysts at Goldman Sachs said.

The copper market could face near-term pressure from the likelihood that Chinese imports of the metal could be restrained, the bank said.

"We continue to see aluminium as the base metal with the best relative micro setup, as it is largely tied to China's supply constraint from the capacity cap," the Wall Street bank said.

Goldman remained bearish on nickel with a 12-month target price of $16,000 per metric ton as it expected the market to stay in surplus for the year ahead due to increasing Indonesian and Chinese supply.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange was trading around $18,710 per metric ton by 1425 GMT on Monday. [MET/L]

"We remain bearish on China lithium carbonate spot prices (12M Target at $15,000/t) given our expectation of the upcoming surplus in the market over 2024," the bank said.

(Reporting by Brijesh Patel and Tina Parate in Bengaluru; Editing by Sharon Singleton)