Electric Copper Surge. Manic Metals Report 07/09/2025

Electric copper surge was just a matter of time yesterday. Copper was struck by lightning surging to the highest level in history with the biggest one day up move after President Trump shocked the market with the copper tariff but making the market realized just how critically tied global copper supplies really are this market may need a shock to get prices higher so we can meet the demand that is going to be critical you power the US economy of the future with artificial intelligence and the more important data centers.

It was only a matter of time before the copper market woke up to how tight supplies are.  President Trump’s tariff talk that made the copper market face a cold hard reality of a structural shortage making this electric charged shocking rally not all that surprising.  In fact, in previous Phil Flynn’s Manic Metals reports we suggested that copper’s new all-time high that was achieved yesterday was bound to happen and it was just a matter of time.

Yet leave it to t President Trump make it explosive and he speed at which we saw that spike up after President Trump put tariffs on US copper imports caught a lot of people even copper bulls by surprise.

When President Donald Trump announced a new 50% tariff on all copper imports to the US, though the implementation date remains uncertain. At his Cabinet meeting, President Trump said that  “Today we’re doing copper,” and confirmed the 50% rate, and that comment send copper on the biggest one day upward move in history.

We suggested in previous reports that for copper we’re facing a structural shortage as the demand for copper goes through the roof as it’s the best conductor for electricity in a world where electricity demand is going to grow at the fastest rate perhaps in the history or at least since the beginning of the industrial revolution.  And it is already impacting electricity costs as we must rebuild our grid. The Energy Information Administration reported they t expect U.S. average wholesale power prices to increase by  huge  12% this summer compared with last summer.   A spike in wholesale power  prices is a warning sign for the economy and the reason why the Trump Administration has made it a national priority to improve our power grid to get prepared for the record-breaking demand that we’re going to see in this country the future of the US economy is going to depend on data centers and artificial intelligence and we need to get our grid prepared.

Reuters is reporting that electricity bills are protected the surge by more than 20% this summer in some parts of Pennsylvania.

The Wall Street Journal reported that in February, Trump ordered a national security review of copper imports. With possible tariffs looming, traders raised prices and increased U.S. copper shipments.

The premium is below the threatened 50% tariff because the influx of copper should cover about six months of imports, according to Morgan Stanley analysts.

Key questions remain: will tariffs apply to all copper products or exempt scrap, and will any countries be spared, as with aluminum? Notably, Chile alone could supply all of America’s refined copper needs.

And while that may drive true reports suggest that the demand for copper could hit a level that we might not be able to meet demand in fact by 2030 all the production in the world will only meet 80% of the world’s global demand.

Annual copper demand is expected to grow from somewhere around 25,000,000 tons today to as much as 50 million tons a day by the year 2035 according to S&P global at the same time the lack of investment in copper mines is starting to take its toll because of that the average grade of copper ore has dropped 40%  since the year 1991.

And without higher prices you won’t see investment in copper mines and BHP Billiton is estimating a 15% production decline by 2035 from current operations in other words we need to start investing in copper and only a high price will make that happen.

How this will affect other metals is unclear, but we do know that silver is a byproduct that’s found in copper or deposits during copper mining silver is extracted alongside with copper as a secondary metal in fact according to the silver institute about 30% of global silver production comes from copper mining operations.

So what I’m going to assume is that the higher price of copper should drive up the price of silver as well or if you’re negative longer term it may produce more silver which would put downward pressure down the road.

While tariff uncertainty may boost gold in the long run as investors look for safe havens, the stock market could actually be a better option if Trump’s policies spark a significant rally.

So, make sure that you sign up for the Phil Flynn daily energy report and trade levels and stay tuned to the Fox Business Network because they are only network that’s invested in. You can also open your account by calling me today at 888-264-5665 or email questions to pflynn@pricegroup.com.