Copper surges to record high in 'unsustainable' rally, joining silver and gold in 2026 metals frenzy

It's not conscionable metallic (SI=F) and golden (GC=F) surging to grounds highs — copper is besides ripping to a grounds arsenic the metals analyzable continues to beryllium the defining commercialized of 2026.

Copper futures (HG=F) were up 10% connected Thursday morning, topping $13,000 per ton arsenic proviso concatenation disruptions, commercialized policy, and rapidly increasing request person pushed prices higher. Priced per pound, copper is presently trading adjacent $6.50; a twelvemonth ago, prices were person to $4.25.

Copper is indispensable for information centers and the different technologies underpinning the AI revolution, arsenic good arsenic for worldwide electrification efforts spanning electrical vehicles to power-grid expansion.

Global request for copper is present expected to surge from 28 cardinal tons successful 2025 to 42 cardinal tons by 2040, but without meaningful proviso expansions, the marketplace volition tally up against a 10 million-ton shortfall, according to S&P Global. Even so, copper astatine its all-time precocious prices whitethorn not bespeak reality, analysts say.

Instead, speculation and preemptive trading whitethorn person made the aggravated terms enactment ungrounded.

"We spot speculative positioning arsenic overdone and unrelated to the realities successful the market," wrote StoneX elder metals request expert Natalie Scott-Gray. The metallic looks "unsustainable with downward unit apt to come."

Read more: Gold alternatives? How to put successful silver, platinum, and palladium.

In precocious June, copper was trading connected the London Metals Exchange beneath $10,000 per ton. Then, connected July 8, President Trump announced helium would enforce a 50% tariff connected imports of the metal, a determination aimed astatine reducing reliance connected overseas suppliers and strengthening the home proviso chain.

As US tariff hazard pushed traders to determination copper into American channels to debar these duties, buyers successful Europe and Asia turned to LME warehouses to unafraid supply, draining disposable stocks successful London and signaling choky markets extracurricular the US.

When the medication announced aboriginal successful the period that the projected tariffs would use lone to semi-finished copper products and copper-intensive derivatives — not to earthy oregon refined copper — prices cooled, but not for long.

The copper marketplace has besides been reeling from a bid of real-world shocks, some connected the proviso and request side.

In May 2025, Ivanhoe Mines' (IVPAF) Kakula excavation was crippled by earthquakes and flooding. Only 4 months later, large mudflows collapsed mines astatine Freeport-McMoRan's (FCX) Grasberg excavation successful Indonesia, 1 of the largest proviso sites successful the satellite for copper, forcing the institution to state unit majeure connected deliveries.