The US imports roughly half of its copper needs each year, which is used in construction, transportation and electronics.
United States President Donald Trump has said he will announce a 50 percent tariff on copper, hoping to boost domestic production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, the power grid and many consumer goods.
Trump told reporters at a White House cabinet meeting that he planned to make the copper tariff announcement later in the day, but did not say when the tariff would take effect.
“I believe the tariff on copper, we’re going to make 50 percent,” Trump said.
US Comex copper futures jumped more than 12 percent to a record high after Trump announced the planned tariff, which came earlier than the industry had expected, with the rate steeper.
After Trump spoke, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in an interview on CNBC that the tariff would likely be put in place by the end of July or August 1. He said Trump would post details on his Truth Social media account sometime on Tuesday.
In February, the administration announced a so-called Section 232 investigation into US imports of the red metal. Such an investigation allows the US Department of Commerce to analyse the impact of an import on national security. The deadline for the investigation to conclude was November, but Lutnick said the review was already complete.
“The idea is to bring copper home, bring copper production home, bring the ability to make copper, which is key to the industrial sector, back home to America,” Lutnick said.
The National Mining Association declined to comment, saying it preferred to wait until details were released. The American Critical Minerals Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Copper is used in construction, transportation, electronics and many other industries. The US imports roughly half of its copper needs each year.
Copper supplies
Major copper mining projects across the US have faced strong opposition in recent years due to a variety of reasons, including Rio Tinto and BHP’s Resolution Copper project in Arizona and Northern Dynasty Minerals’s Pebble Mine project in Alaska.
Shares of the world’s largest copper producer, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan, shot up nearly 5 percent in Tuesday afternoon trading. The company, which produced 1.26 billion pounds of copper in the US last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Freeport, which would benefit from US copper tariffs but worries that the duties would hurt the global economy, has advised Trump to focus on boosting US copper production.
Countries set to be most affected by any new US copper tariff would be Chile, Canada and Mexico, which were the top suppliers to the US of refined copper, copper alloys and copper products in 2024, according to US Census Bureau data.
Chile, Canada and Peru, three of the largest copper suppliers to the US, have told the Trump administration that imports from their countries do not threaten US interests and should not face tariffs. All three have free trade deals with the US.
Mexico’s Secretariat of Economy, Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Canada’s Department of Finance did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chile’s Mining Ministry and Codelco, the country’s leading copper miner, declined to comment.
A 50 percent tariff on copper imports would affect US companies that use the metal because the country is years away from meeting its needs, said Ole Hansen, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.
“The US has imported a whole year of demand over the past six months, so the local storage levels are ample,” Hansen said. “I see a correction in copper prices following the initial jump.”
