Copper market is revitalized by Chinese buyers' activity

As noted by Bloomberg, copper prices have managed to recover after the fall caused by the global trade tensions, and the international market of the metal is showing signs of deficit. According to numerous traders and industry executives quoted by the agency, the revival has been supported by active buying in China.

Amid financial market chaos that followed Trump's imposition of retaliatory tariffs, copper prices in April fell to their lowest since 2023, and Chinese buyers took advantage of the price drop and began buying up the metal. The London Metal Exchange (LME) saw the highest hourly volume of trading in nearly a decade. As a result, copper prices on the LME have risen by more than 8% since the beginning of the year.

Supply disruptions are also having a role to play. The threat of tariff imposition caused a rapid growth of metal supplies in the United States. As noted in Morgan Stanley, now the physical market of copper appears to be tight.

According to Wei Lai, deputy head of the trading department at China's leading copper producer Zijin Mining, the increase in apparent demand for the red metal in China has been almost double-digit this year. However, according to him, this growth in consumption will not last long. In the second half of the year, the expert anticipates a slowdown of demand.