With President Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that the US will levy a 50% tariff on copper imports, the new phrase might be “worth your weight in copper.”
Copper is a key ingredient in electrical wiring and construction. With the explosion of electric vehicles, data centers, and the electrification of everything, copper demand is likely to soar 70% by 2050, according to BHP, a major mining company.
Copper joins the Trump administration’s tariffs on aluminum, steel, and cars. Trump imposed the copper tariff after ordering a Section 232 investigation, “using a law that gives the president authority to impose higher tariffs based on national security grounds,” according to CNN. The tariffs are allegedly to protect and reinvigorate the US copper industry, but analysts believe it would take decades to ramp up production of US copper, Reuters reported. The US currently imports about 40% of the copper it needs, mostly from Chile.
Tariffs on aluminum, steel, and lumber have already added nearly $11,000 to the cost of a new home, according to the National Association of Home Builders, and the copper tariffs will push that even higher. Every single-family home has an estimated 440 pounds of copper in wiring, plumbing, and appliances, according to the Copper Development Association.
The tariff will go into effect in late July or early August, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on CNBC, meaning that only copper that’s already on the high seas or coming from closer origins like Latin America will make it to US shores before the deadline.
But the US seemed to have been waiting for the other shoe to drop on copper. JP Morgan analysts said the US has stockpiled almost a year’s worth of copper just in the past six months. Which would be worth its weight in copper and then some, we guess?
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