Demand for commodities will remain intact after Japan’s biggest earthquake as rebuilding efforts will outweigh a decline in industrial production, Mark Mobius, chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s Emerging Markets Group, said in an interview with CNBC.

“We don’t think there’s going to be a significant change in the longer-term trend,” Mobius said. “We haven’t moved to buy or sell. There is tremendous spending that has to be done, and that will boost the demand for steel, iron ore and the rest of it.”

Copper fell to a three-month low in New York on concern that Japanese demand for industrial metals will slow after last week’s earthquake and tsunami forced factories and smelters to close. Aluminum, tin, zinc, lead and nickel also fell in London.

Templeton’s Mobius said commodities are dropping as investors “want to get into cash and wait to see what happens,” and “some of it is just panic.”