How Are Tariffs Affecting the Copper Market?

Well, we've had 50% tariffs on copper for around half a year. Have copper prices behaved as you thought they would?

Yes. So, those tariffs that we saw of copper, that's around the finished copper products, so piping, wiring, things like that. A lot of what we're not seeing is that refined copper where we haven't seen those tariffs take into account. There's some thoughts that maybe in June this year when there's another look at tariffs that maybe that refined copper gets pulled into that.

But I think what we've seen so far whether it's in copper, uranium, or other critical materials, is that they haven't been subject to tariffs, and I think that's something that we're expecting to see as we go forward. As we're looking to reshore copper production, we can't just flip a switch and shut off and really push up prices of outside material. So it's not really a surprise that we're seeing the market react in a way with some skittishness and fears around increased tariffs.

But what it has introduced in the market is fragmentation where we're seeing prices of copper in the United States priced differently than what we're seeing in London or what we're seeing in China. I think that fragmentation is something that's likely to stay for a while until we see some certainty not only around tariffs but, I think, from other economical and geopolitical risks that we're seeing as.