Jul. 30 at 7:27 PM
$TGB Copper futures in the US plummeted by up to 20% to the
$4.55 mark on Wednesday, the largest intra-day fall on record after President Trump excluded refined copper from the tariff package that will start on Friday. The tariffs will apply to imports of semi-finished copper products in wires and pipes, but will refrain from taxing ore, cathodes, and concentrates, among the most widely forms of copper imported to the US. The slump was the unwind of traders allocating metal into the US before the end of July to undercut threats of 50% tariffs on copper, which included refined products, and led to shortages of metal in foreign exchanges to lift copper futures to a record of
$5.9 this week. Consequently, the premium of US copper to comparable LME contracts had surged to a record of 30%. The new measures also stated tariffs would only be applied to the share of copper in semifinished products, in addition of export controls for a growing share of metal to be sold domestically.
