Is President Trump 'weaponizing' copper?
Just over two months ago, we noted that drastic tightening of the Chinese copper markets and since then, copper stocks in China have continued to dwindle as stocks of copper at COMEX (US) have soared...
With COMEX copper stocks now at seven year highs while Chinese stocks are at multi-year lows...
With that as background, President Trump said Tuesday that he plans to set a 50 percent tariff on copper imports, as part of a set of looming sectoral tariffs, while also indicating he could offer pharmaceutical manufacturers at least a year before implementing levies on their foreign-made products.
Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday he was still planning tariffs on select industries, including drugs, semiconductors, and metals.
“I believe the tariff on copper we’re going to make it 50%,” Trump said when asked by a reporter what the rate on those products would be.
That effort is separate from Trump’s other effort to announce new country-specific tariff rates, which would not apply to products hit under his Section 232 efforts.
Copper futures in New York surged as much as 17% after Trump’s comments, the largest intraday gain in data going back to at least 1988...
...pushing the US price for the metal to a new record high...
Trump had directed the Commerce Secretary in late February to open an investigation into foreign copper imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion act and submit a report within 270 days.
The act gives the president broad authority to impose restrictions on national security grounds.
So, with Chinese stocks dwindling and US stocks soaring, 'tariff-ing' Copper right now is interesting in its timing...
The US won’t be able to produce any more copper to offset the shortfall - it takes years to set up a copper mine, though there’s plenty in the ground.
US copper smelters though have struggled to compete with lower-cost smelters in China.
Copper is vital for housing, electronics and cars, both EV and conventional ICE vehicles.
...remember, there's no coincidences in Washington.
