Copper price sets fresh record as US tariff threat wipes out global surplus
CRU now calls its forecast 639kt surplus "at best balanced", while Southern Copper's mad surge leaves Wall Street price targets more than 20% behind.
Copper prices reached a new record high on Tuesday, closing near all-time highs in both New York and London, as a threat of US import tariffs drove metal into American warehouses and turned a global surplus into scarcity elsewhere. Comex copper for September delivery surged up to $6.7270 a pound, shattering the previous record of $6.7140 set on August 12.
The contract traded at a premium of nearly 4% above the London price, which itself had hit an all-time high of $14,527.50. Copper had previously peaked at $14,396 a tonne on August 17, but a surge of returning metal pushed the price back towards $14,000. Warehouse stocks in the London Metal Exchange (LME) surged 74.5% in a week, with the cash premium over three-month metal dwindling to $248 from a five-year high of $434.
The reprieve was short-lived as metal resumed its march across the Atlantic to Comex, where inventories reached a record 675,185 tonnes over 46 straight days. US imports of refined copper in the first half of the year rose 3% year-over-year, with traders positioning for potential tariff hikes. Analysts warned that the market may look more like a deficit market in reality, with a projected global surplus of 639,000 tonnes for 2026.
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