Copper

London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month copper slumped to a 17-month low of $8,105 per metric ton on April 7 after China responded to U.S. tariffs in kind.

Citi, which now expects copper to hit $8,000 per ton over the next three months, warns that commodity markets are still not pricing the full potential impact on demand.

Copper as a macro play cannot but reflect the broader market concerns about the negative impact of an escalating trade war between the United States and China on the world economy.

But at a micro level, the specific threat of U.S. tariffs on the metal is pulling normal trade patterns out of shape and causing both LME and Shanghai exchange inventories to fall.

Source – Reuters

Chile’s place at the low-end of U.S. tariffs announced last week could be favorable for the world’s leading copper-producing country if U.S. President Donald Trump decides to slap tariffs on copper, Chile Mining Minister Aurora Williams said on Wednesday.

Chile is in “wait-and-see” mode until the investigation concludes, Williams told Reuters, but sees potential for a positive outcome even if the U.S. imposes tariffs on copper.

“If we assume that Chile is within the lowest tariff range, the application of a potential 10% tariff is lower than the tariffs we have seen for other copper-producing countries and therefore also generates a better price position,” Williams said

Source – Reuters

The trade war stirred by U.S. tariffs raises a risk for metal demand, the head of Chile’s Antofagasta said, although he predicted AI and other technology could offset any loss of traditional consumption caused by economic weakness.

He also said President Donald Trump’s policies could lead to a more favourable environment for investment in mining

Antofagasta CEO Ivan Arriagada said he expected supplies of copper, needed for construction and the transition to a lower carbon economy, would remain in limited supply.

“In the current environment, where there is a lot more support for mining investment, it should be easier and should happen,” Arriagada said

Source – Reuters

Chile’s state copper commission Cochilco on Monday said that prices for the red metal have likely already peaked this year amid an escalating trade war, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to further increase tariffs on China.

“Base metals, including copper, are likely to have peaked in 2025 as they will be negatively impacted by the trade dynamics between the U.S. and China,” Cochilco said in a statement.

Cochilco said that if current economic and geopolitical conditions continue, its forecast would weaken.

Source – Reuters

Looking for another sign of how nervous investors are about tariffs? Copper prices plummeted 7% Friday to about $4.50 a pound in New York. Copper has plunged nearly 15% since hitting a 2025 peak price of about $5.25 in late March. But copper is still up about 13% this year. That may not last much longer.

Source – Barrons

The red metal, along with pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, earns an exemption from “reciprocal” tariffs on most goods entering the U.S.

Referred to in a White House fact sheet as “responsive tariffs,” President Trump spells out the rationale for and specific examples of other nations’ tariffs in that April 2 fact sheet, fully titled “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Declares National Emergency to Increase our Competitive Edge, Protect our Sovereignty, and Strengthen our National and Economic Security.”

“Some goods will not be subject to the Reciprocal Tariff”

“Copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber articles”

Source – Recycling Today

After 154 years of digging at Morenci, all the easily recoverable copper has been mined. Left behind are towering piles of waste rock that hold nearly 10 million tons of the metal seen as critical to global electrification. It’s a cache that could prove key to President Donald Trump’s ambition to boost US production of critical minerals.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc., which owns Morenci, is trying to develop technology that can burrow within those gigantic waste piles and extract low-grade copper that miners previously saw as too expensive and difficult to process.

“For a long time, we just didn’t think it was possible to recover any of this stuff,” said Robert Pollock, Morenci’s site manager, gazing up at a waste pile the size of a Manhattan office building. “But now, all this historical copper – we’re going after it.”

Source – Bloomberg

Chile’s state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, said on Wednesday it would supply copper concentrates to India’s Adani Group’s $1.2 billion smelter, the world’s biggest single-location plant of its type.

The supply will begin this year, said Codelco

Codelco also separately signed a preliminary agreement with Hindustan Copper to cooperate on exploring and processing minerals.

Source – Reuters