US copper prices fell sharply after US President Donald Trump suddenly excluded refined metal from harsh new tariffs set to come in on Friday. Prices of the metal traded on US markets hit record highs earlier this month after Trump threatened to impose levies of 50 per cent alongside a list of other goods.
The impact was to see US importers stock up on physical copper in enormous volumes ahead of new levies , sending prices soaring. It drove US-traded copper prices to a record $5.92/lb a week ago and opened up an enormous premium against prices on the London Metal Exchange and other global metal markets.
But late on Wednesday Trump shocked markets by excluding copper cathodes and input materials such as ores from impending tariffs. Copper cathodes – high-purity plates of copper used for manufacturing wire, cables, and other components – are what is traded on international metal exchanges.
US prices – Comex copper futures – tumbled by more than 22 per cent to $4.355/lb by early afternoon on Thursday – marking their biggest one-day fall in history. Dan Smith, managing director at Commodity Market Analytics, told the Reuters news agency the move could be a ‘disaster’ for some traders.
He said: ‘You spent all this money getting stuff across to America and then, it’s going to have to sit there, isn’t it?’ Steve Clayton, head of equity funds at Hargreaves Lansdown, added: ‘The sudden realization that there was no need for the market to be so dislocated sent US copper prices tumbling back down toward the London benchmark, leaving US buyers nursing heavy losses.’
Meanwhile, benchmark three-month copper on the LME was down 0.7 per cent per cent at $9,631 a ton. The slide in Comex prices flipped its premium over LME, which had traded at about $3,000 a ton last week, to a $4 discount on Thursday. London-listed miners suffered, with Antofagasta , Rio Tinto , Glencore and Anglo American falling by 4.2 to 6.4 per cent each.
![The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange eased 1.3 per cent to 78,040 yuan a ton. Nikos Tzabouras, senior market analyst at Tradu.com, said: 'The [Trump] administration has left the door open to imposing duties on refined copper in the coming years.](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/07/31/15/100792557-14959469-The_most_traded_copper_contract_on_the_Shanghai_Futures_Exchange-a-121_1753973010715.jpg)
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange eased 1.3 per cent to 78,040 yuan a ton. Nikos Tzabouras, senior market analyst at Tradu.com, said: ‘The [Trump] administration has left the door open to imposing duties on refined copper in the coming years.
‘In addition, the non-ferrous metal continues to benefit from structural demand drivers that could support prices. ‘These tailwinds are linked to its usage in semiconductors powering the AI boom, clean energy infrastructure, and military applications amid rising defense budgets.’