Copper price rallies back above $13,000 on supply worries

[Ben Graham]

Copper surged to a one-week high above $13,000 a ton on Friday amid a broader rally in metals supported by growing investor rotation away from currencies and sovereign bonds.

Prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose as much as 3.3% to $13,173.50/t, near the all-time high of near $13,400/t from earlier this month, before paring gains.

While the benchmark price was higher, spreads between different contracts remain loose as deliveries to warehouses in the US and Asia helped ease pressure on buyers after a sharp squeeze earlier this week.

Metals have enjoyed a strong start to 2026, with some (gold and silver) smashing records almost on a daily basis to extend last year’s blistering rally. Tensions surrounding US attempts to control Greenland acted as the latest springboard, drawing a growing number of investors towards hard assets.

Supply warnings

Copper, on top of benefitting from this investment shift, has also been boosted by concerns over supply to match a demand that is exploding due to the rise of artificial intelligence.

Mining billionaire Robert Friedland recently gave a compelling speech at USC Marshall’s Energy Business Summit on the industry’s uphill battle ahead to secure enough copper to meet this demand.

You just can't own enough Copper. Billionaire Robert Friedland sums it up perfectly….. You people have no idea whatsoever what we’re facing.

“We’re consuming 30m tonnes of copper a year. Only 4m tonnes of which is recycled. That means to maintain 3% GDP growth, with no… pic.twitter.com/EXEP79fuh3

— TheGladiator (@TheGladiatorHC) January 23, 2026

“We’re consuming 30 million tonnes of copper a year. Only 4 million tonnes of which is recycled. That means to maintain 3% GDP growth, with no electrification, we have to mine the same amount of copper in the next 18 years as we mined in the last 10,000 years, combined,” he stressed.

Industry estimates that it would take roughly 17 years to take a mine from discovery to production, a pace that would place the global copper market in a shortage by 2040.

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Given its use in almost every industry — from construction, appliances and traditional infrastructure to electric vehicles, renewable energy, and now, AI data centers — copper has become integral to a nation’s competitiveness.

The US, the biggest economy, recently placed the metal on its list of critical minerals, and has been mulling import levies in an effort to reduce its reliance on foreign supply. Last July, prices in the US hit a record amid expectations of a sweeping copper tariff, which was later toned down.

In 2026, the Trump administration may change its mind, pending a review over the first six months. This has reignited copper’s rise. Year to date, the industrial metal has risen more than 6%, pacing closely with gold.

(With files from Bloomberg)