Copper hit a record intraday high of $14,527.50 per metric ton on the London Metal Exchange on January 29, 2026, with prices hovering around $14,430 by early September, signaling a new plateau rather than a temporary spike. US tariff expectations under Section 232, with a proposed 15% duty starting January 2027 and potentially rising to 30% by 2028, triggered a surge in American imports: 225,094 metric tons of refined copper in July 2026 alone, a monthly record. US Comex inventories swelled to between 695,000 and 766,000 short tons, while global stocks on the LME and Shanghai Futures Exchange fell below 250,000 tons. For the full year 2025, copper prices rose more than 40%, the largest annual gain since 2009. Major disruptions at Chilean and Indonesian mines compounded the tightness, amid sustained global demand from electrification and power infrastructure projects.
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