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Copper is the third most consumed metal in the world. It is also known as a highly conductive material. The properties of copper include good electrical conductivity, excellent thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance, high ductility, recyclability, and non-magnetic properties. The copper market is segmented by end consumer industries (automotive and heavy equipment, construction, electrical and electronics, industrial and other end consumer industries). Recently, the development of electric vehicles has increased the demand for copper. The leaves, stator, rotor, shaft end, hollow wire and motor used in electric vehicles are composed of heavy copper. Major copper producing countries include Chile, Peru and China. Chile produces more than a quarter of the world's copper, and is by far the country with the largest copper reserves. Escondida, located in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile and owned by mining company BHP, is the largest copper mine in the world by total copper reserves, production capacity and actual copper output.

As the possibility of President Trump's copper tariffs put pressure on domestic smelters' capacity, copper futures in the US surged beyond the $5.1 per pound mark on Friday, approaching record-high levels and trading at nearly record-high premiums to LME futures of over $0.5 per pound. After declaring in a previous address to Congress that he would impose tariffs on copper, the President signed an executive order to begin a review of imports. Since the US imports almost half of its copper, such a shift would increase reliance on domestic capacity, which is restricted to just two major smelters. Meanwhile, the government's promises of more deficit spending and a rebound in manufacturing activity continued to support demand from China, the country's largest buyer. Along with shifting of metal to take advantage of global contract spreads, the Yangshan Copper Premium, which measures the premium on LME contracts to import physical copper to China, more than doubled since the start of March to $70 per tonne.

Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the global market as China's construction and power generation sectors are well-developed and continue to invest in the region to achieve advancements in the telecommunications sector. and electronics over the years. The copper market is partially consolidated, with a few large players dominating the majority of the market. Some of the major players (in no particular order) include Glencore, BHP, Codelco, Aurubis AG, and KGHM.