Copper Prices Retreat Sharply Ahead of Looming U.S. Tariff Decision

Published: 31 Jul 2025

Author: Precedence Research

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This week, copper prices were reduced by a very sharp margin ahead of the U.S. tariff closing. This is confirmed by investors who are closely monitoring the market movement and looking for a final statement on imminent U.S. tariffs. According to the highly active platform COMEX, copper futures predictions dropped by nearly 3% to USD5.613/lb. This is a sharp pullback after a record-setting rise in the last week, which saw a price rise to USD6/lb. Level.

On a specific country-level change, in London, the three-month copper contract dropped more than 1% to USD9769.50/t, which had increased by 6% before to $9,824.50/t. 

This decline pops up just days ahead of official changes that are going to be implemented by the U.S. tariffs law, which states that 50% tariffs will be imposed on industrial metals, including copper. This change will affect every country equally. However, to date, Trump’s administration is unclear about major aspects of the duties, such as which products will be covered in these tariff changes or if metal that was already sent to U.S. shores will be treated by these new rules or considered as per previous customs. 

By looking at this uncertain condition, many global traders have already been shipping huge amounts of copper to the U.S. to avoid last-minute baffling and a sudden spike in the price earlier this month. Copper prices do not yet completely reflect changes to the 50% universal tariff rate, though copper prices in the U.S. are quite higher than in London.

In addition to these changes, further major developments are kept secret ahead of this week, and the Federal Reserve is anticipated to keep rates as they were at the end of its policy meeting held on Wednesday. 

However, its commentary will be suspicious and unpredictable for clues to what will change during the foreseeable period on a global level. It is important to note, these changes will affect global trading of copper for no doubt, by looking at the U.S. impact and its business strategies for other countries to follow their U.S. First policy that were the main agenda of the Trump’s administration and on which they had elected by majority of people in the U.S. it will be interesting to see what comes next within a couple of weeks that would be groundbreaking for major industrial landscapes in leading countries also.