Trump Tariff Risks Spur Global Race to Get Copper to the US
- Tariff risk has sent US prices soaring over LME benchmark
- Arbitrage means traders can bank big profits on US deliveries
The moves in copper mirror what has been happening in other metals.
Photographer: Zinyange Auntony/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The world’s top commodity traders are rushing to ship copper to the US from as far afield as Asia as Donald Trump’s threat of import tariffs on the metal creates a huge opportunity for profit.
The gap between copper prices in the US and the rest of the world widened sharply after the president on Tuesday ordered the Commerce Department to examine potential levies on the metal. On Wednesday, prices on New York’s Comex surged as much as 4.9% to trade more than $1,000 a ton above the London Metal Exchange benchmark, which rose 1.2% to about $9,500 a ton.