By Pratima Desai
London — Copper prices crossed $13,000 a tonne for the first time on Monday as concerns about supplies intensified following a strike at a Chilean mine, forecasts for deficits and low stocks in London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange rose as much as 4.4% to $13,020 a tonne, beating the previous record high of $12,960 set on December 29.
The metal used in power and construction was trading at $13,006 as of 1.50pm GMT, having only passed $12,000 for the first time on December 23.
In the US, Comex copper prices surged 4.6% to a record $5.90 per pound.
Traders said a strike at Capstone Copper’s Mantoverde copper and gold mine in northern Chile had reinforced the theme of shortages.
The Mantoverde mine is expected to produce between 29,000 tonnes and 32,000 tonnes of copper. While this is only a fraction of the global mined production forecast of about 24-million tonnes this year, it reinforces expectations of shortfalls.
“We forecast 2026 copper demand growth of about 3% versus refined supply growth of less than 1%, resulting in a 300,000-400,000 tonne deficit that lifts to about 500,000 tonnes in 2027,” analysts at UBS said in a note.
Fuelling the copper price rise is a drop in LME stocks, which at 142,550 tonnes are down 55% since late August.
Much of the copper leaving the LME system has gone to the US, where copper tariffs remain under review even as copper was given an exemption from import levies that came into force on August 1.
Elsewhere, aluminium touched $3,077.50 a tonne, its highest since April 2022, due to worries about potential shortages, partly due to China’s 45-million tonne output cap.
“For the last 20 years, the LME price has basically been dictated by the capital costs in China,” said Gregory Wittbecker, president at Wittsend Commodity Advisors.
“Now the market has got to start thinking about capex in places like Indonesia.”
Aluminium was later up 2.1% at $3,076.50, while zinc gained 2.1% to $3,193.50 and lead rose 0.6% to $2,018. Nickel firmed 0.6% to $16,910 and tin climbed 5% to $42,440.
Traders short covering in a low-volume market were behind tin’s big advance.
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