Copper: Chile Supply, China Demand Slow Monday
Copper futures edged up Monday as physical tightness and Chile-Peru supply worries offset soft China data. Southern Copper jumped 4.02%. The post Copper: Chile Supply, China Demand Slow Monday appeared first on The Rio Times .
Copper prices saw modest gains on Monday, August 17, 2026, with Comex contracts rising 0.07% to US$6.6040 per pound. The copper-tracking fund CPER added 0.30% to close at US$40.13, indicating that the movement was driven more by investor sentiment in miners rather than physical copper. Southern Copper and Freeport-McMoRan, two major copper producers, saw significant gains in their stock prices, with Southern Copper jumping 4.02% to US$192.04 and Freeport-McMoRan adding 2.84% to US$68.38.
This surge in stock prices suggests that investors are valuing copper-heavy companies, even as the raw commodity itself showed minimal movement. The tight physical copper market, characterized by a large spread between spot prices and three-month London contract prices, is largely being driven by demand from China. Beijing's recent infrastructure and grid spending pledges have fueled expectations of increased refined copper imports from Latin American producers.
However, mixed property and manufacturing data in China have tempered aggressive buying. The action in copper miners' stocks suggests that investors see long-term value in copper producers, driven by the energy transition and demand for copper in grids, electric vehicles, and renewable energy projects.
Written by urgent.news from The Rio Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
