- Copper has risen 15.8% year-to-date and more than 30% over 12 months, while gold futures have slipped 4.11% year-to-date.
- Ivanhoe Electric CEO Taylor Melvin says demand from technology and defense is inelastic enough to withstand a pullback in AI-related equity valuations.
- The Commerce Department recommended a 15% tariff on refined copper beginning Jan. 1, 2027, but no final decision has been announced.
- Aberdeen Investments' Iain Pyle says Chinese copper inventories are exceptionally low and premiums there are rising.
Quotes
“It's a new pocket of demand, and it really is almost an inelastic demand for copper”
“Because of the potential for US tariffs, a large share of the world's copper is now stored in the U.S., and it isn't clear those stocks will be available to the rest of the market”
“the metals that we used to refer to, and still do, as critical metals are really becoming strategic metals, in every sense of the word”