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Copper capped off 2025 with its best annual performance since 2009, propelled by tightening global supply and rising expectations that demand linked to electrification will outstrip production in the years ahead.
The metal, widely regarded as a bellwether for global economic activity, surged 42 percent on the London Metal Exchange (LME) over the year, outperforming all other industrial metals traded on the exchange.
A powerful end-of-year rally pushed prices to a series of record highs, although copper eased slightly on the final trading day of 2025, slipping 1.1 percent to US$12,558.50 a tonne, according to Mining.com.
Earlier in the week, prices had reached an all-time peak of US$12,960 a tonne.
Read more: Copper prices experience steady rise on the back of strong global demand, tightened supplies
Market analysts attributed much of the rally to near-term supply constraints, compounded by speculative positioning around future trade policy in the United States.
Traders rushed to ship copper into the US in anticipation of potential import tariffs, tightening supply in other regions and driving prices higher.
United States (US) President, Donald Trump’s intention to revisit tariffs on primary copper in 2026 reignited an arbitrage trade that had earlier disrupted the market.
While the price gap between US and international markets narrowed toward the end of December, the flow of metal into the US significantly reduced availability elsewhere.
“The expectation of future US import tariffs on refined copper has led to more than 650,000 tonnes of copper being shipped into the country, creating tightness outside the US,” said Natalie Scott-Gray, senior metals analyst at StoneX Financial Ltd.
She added that approximately two-thirds of visible global copper inventories are now held on the COMEX exchange.
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