Copper market weakens as trade tensions persist — OilPrice

Global trade tensions are weighing on US economic growth, leading the International Monetary Fund to cut its 2025 GDP forecast for the country. As a result, investors are shifting their focus to the industrial metals market, which is now showing signs of weakness, with copper being a key example, OilPrice.com experts say.

In his latest report, Goldman Sachs analyst Adam Gillard highlighted tight physical copper supplies in China amid robust domestic consumption. However, he cautioned that sluggish global industrial demand coupled with falling Chinese exports could push the market into surplus.

Gillard also highlighted the key trends shaping the current copper market dynamics. These include unexpectedly high cathode imports into the US (408,000 tons since the beginning of the year), growing pressure on the scrap market due to widening discounts, and a 10% surge in demand for the metal in China. Meanwhile, investor positioning appears mixed: while traders on the LME are heavily short, their counterparts in China are long.