Copper climbs to $13,000/ton after strike at mine in Chile

Copper touched $13,000 a ton for the first time, extending last year's scorching rally as mine outages and trade dislocations fuel concerns over supplies of the key industrial metal.

Benchmark futures rallied as much as 4.3% in London. A strike at the Mantoverde mine in Chile was just the latest supply disruption at a time of expanding global demand for the metal used in everything from data centres to car batteries. At the same time, the threat of US import tariffs on the metal has led traders to ramp up shipments to American shores in recent weeks, reducing supplies elsewhere.

Copper, a metal that's vital for energy transition, surged 42% in 2025, its best annual gain since 2009. A deadly accident at the world's second-largest copper mine in Indonesia and an underground flood in the Democratic Republic of Congo were some of the supply disruptions that propelled prices to successive records.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump's plan to revisit the question of tariffs on primary copper in 2026 has revived the arbitrage trade that rocked the market earlier last year.

The US holds roughly half of global inventories, but only accounts for less than 10% of global demand, according to UBS. That means there is a risk of lower supplies elsewhere.

"Overall supply shortfalls, coupled with regional dislocation caused by US tariffs, are propelling copper," China Securities Co. analysts, led by Wang Jiechao wrote in a note. The global copper market will see a shortage of more than 100,000 tons in 2026," they forecasted.

Three-month copper rose 4% to $12,963.50 a ton on the London Metal Exchange on Monday afternoon local time.

This is a BLOOMBERG story