“I believe the tariff on copper, we’re going to make it 50%,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question during a Cabinet meeting.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick added that their investigations on Copper under Section 232 are complete and their observations have been submitted to the President.“Copper is finished. We’re done with our study,” Lutnick said. “We’ve handed the study over to the president. The president knows that he has the ability, since we’ve studied the market for copper, to set the market tariff for copper.”
Lutnick added that these measures could be put in place by the end of this month or on August 1, which is when the reciprocal tariffs deadline extension ends as well.Morgan Stanley believes that although this move will support higher prices on the Comex, the near-term impact will be cushioned due to a build-up in domestic inventories. Producers had shipped record Copper to the US to take advantage of higher prices and those shipments may just rise further, to navigate the tariff deadline.
No clarity has been shared on whether there will be any exemptions to this proposal.
Nearly 74% of US imports of Copper comes from three countries – Chile (38%), who also happens to be the largest global producer, Canada (28%) and Mexico (8%).
“In the short term, the price is going to rise significantly because the market was” expecting a lower tariff rate, said Juan Carlos Guajardo, founder of consultancy Plusmining. “So, there will be a lot of buying before the tariff goes into effect.”
(With Inputs From Agencies.)
