Copper Price Rose To A Record High
- 29.01.2026, 21:36
What does this have to do with China?
The price of copper rose by the largest percentage in more than 16 years after a strong wave of buying by Chinese investors. This was reported on January 29 by Bloomberg.
The media writes that the price of copper rose by 11% and for the first time reached $14.5 thousand per ton. Since the beginning of December, the metal has risen in price by about 21%, which experts note as a result of the activity of speculative funds and a powerful wave of demand, which raised metal prices to record levels.
Mining company executive and former Trafigura Group trader Mark Thompson noted that such spikes in the market are very rare and that even a small supply disruption can push the price up to $20,000 a ton.
According to the head of base metals research at Xiamen C&D Inc. Yang Weijun, the price rise was driven by speculative funds and funding likely came from China as the rise occurred during Asian hours.
Copper prices climbed more than $1,400 a tonne before falling sharply by $1,000 less than an hour after U.S. markets opened, when risk-averse sentiment dominated the market. Copper remains a popular asset among investors due to expected demand from energy and data center development.
Despite the sharp gains, the market is being affected by signs of weak demand in China, which consumes about half of the physical metal, and increased contango on the London Metal Exchange (LME), indicating ample inventories.
Speculative excitement also fueled record trading volumes on the Shanghai Commodity Exchange (SHFE), where January has already been the most active month for six base metals, with copper recording the second-highest daily trading volume on Thursday.
Goldman Sachs' head of China equities Trina Chen warned that the market could see a technical correction if physical buyers in China are not willing to buy at high prices.
On the LME, the copper price rose 3.1 percent to $13,495 a tonne, the biggest daily move since 2009. SHFE futures hit 114,000 yuan ($16,400) a tonne after opening the evening session, after rising 5.8% to 109,110 yuan ($15,600) on Thursday. Other metals also rose sharply in the morning before partially correcting, with aluminum down 1.5% and zinc up 2% on the London exchange.