Copper futures climbed to around $6.7 per pound on Tuesday, approaching fresh record highs as expectations of new US import tariffs on the metal continued to encourage traders to redirect shipments toward American warehouses, tightening supplies elsewhere.

The persistent premium on copper futures traded on New York's Comex continued to create arbitrage opportunities, even as the White House has yet to finalize the proposed levies. The dynamic has drawn unusually large volumes of the metal into US warehouses, while other regions face reduced availability as a result.

The tariff-driven trade triggered a major squeeze and backwardation on the London Metal Exchange (LME) last month, although new deliveries have helped ease some of the immediate supply pressure. Backwardation, where near-term contracts trade above deferred ones, is a classic signal of near-term scarcity in physical markets.

Adding to the tightness, major copper-producing countries in South America, notably Chile and Peru, the world's largest and second-largest copper exporters respectively, have faced operational challenges this year, contributing to weaker output and exports.

Meanwhile, supply has struggled to keep pace with rising demand from data centers, renewable energy projects and power grids. The electrification trend makes copper a critical input for power transmission, electric vehicles, and the buildout of AI-related data center infrastructure, and miners have announced multi-billion-dollar pipeline expansions in recent years to respond, though new projects typically take years to come online.

Traders are watching for the White House's final decision on the proposed copper tariffs, expected to clarify how large the levies will be and whether exemptions will apply, a determination likely to shape near-term flows between US and non-US warehouses.

Source: Trading Economics via Hellenic Shipping News, 08/09/2026