Video: Another wild ride for copper in 2025

Copper prices in New York surged surged above international benchmarks at the start of 2025 as traders ramped up bets that US President Donald Trump would impose hefty import tariffs on the metal, escalating his global trade war.

MINING.COM Editor at Large, Frik Els, told MINING.COM host Devan Murugan that 2025 is already shaping up to be another wild ride for the red metal.

“Copper has shot up again in the opening weeks of 2025, and you can thank the tariffs for that,” said Els. “In 2024, there was a kind of disconnect between the US markets and London, and that’s happening again.”

According to Els, traders are positioning themselves to pay much more for copper because of the impending tariffs.

“They want to front-load the buying of copper before the tariffs kick in, which seem to be more and more inevitable.”

Els also commented on the potential impact of Chinese government stimulus measures on copper prices and expressed doubts about the possibility of a new Chinese supercycle.

“Copper is closely tied to the construction and real estate markets in China, especially with completions. I don’t think the stimulus will be enough. It’ll make a difference, but it’s not going to be sufficient to sustain a significant increase in demand.”