LME Copper Climbs to Record Above $11,200 a Ton
Copper on the London Metal Exchange surged to an all time high above $11,200 a ton, reflecting tight supply and robust demand tied to electrification and clean energy investment. The move matters for manufacturers, miners and policymakers because it raises input costs, boosts export revenues for producers and could add upward pressure to inflation.
Benchmark three month LME copper climbed as much as 2.5 percent on November 28, reaching $11,210.50 per ton and eclipsing the previous record, Reuters reported on November 29, 2025. The gain was driven by a combination of a weaker U.S. dollar, lower output from top producer Chile in October, and planned production cuts by Chinese smelters, a mix that intensified short term supply concerns while reinforcing a longer term demand narrative.
The price spike underlines copper’s central role in the global transition to low carbon energy and electrification. Investors and industrial buyers have repeatedly cited the metal’s use in electric vehicles, renewable power generation and grid upgrades as structural support for prices. Those demand expectations, when paired with fresh signs of constrained supply, have produced sharp market moves in recent sessions.
Chile’s dip in output in October tightened the physical balance for a market already vulnerable to disruptions. As the world’s largest producer, Chile’s monthly production patterns feed directly into traders’ assessments of near term availability. At the same time, announcements of planned smelter cuts in China, the world’s biggest consumer of refined copper, removed expected processing capacity from the outlook and reduced the flow of refined metal into warehouses and end users.
The weaker U.S. dollar amplified the rally by making dollar priced commodities more attractive to holders of other currencies. Historically copper tends to rise when the dollar falls, because overseas buyers gain purchasing power and speculative capital shifts into hard assets. The recent currency move therefore acted as a catalyst for the price breakout, compounding physical market tightness.
Markets will watch several indicators to assess how durable the rally may be. Official and exchange inventories, reported smelter throughput in China, Chilean export data and speculative positioning in futures markets will determine whether the price can hold at record levels or retreat as short sellers and industrial buyers step in. Elevated prices typically encourage additional mining investment over the medium term, but mining projects have long lead times and require stable price signals to justify new capacity.
For manufacturers, a sustained period of higher copper elevates input costs for sectors from construction to electronics, potentially feeding through to consumer prices in concentrated pockets. For copper producing economies, including Chile and Peru, higher prices boost export revenues and fiscal space, though they also raise the urgency to manage potential overheating and Dutch disease risks.
Policymakers and central bankers are likely to monitor the development for its implications for inflation dynamics. Commodity driven price increases are a familiar channel by which global price pressures can reappear even as core inflation moderates. In the near term the market will balance physical supply developments against the steady structural increase in demand tied to the energy transition, a dynamic that has propelled copper into the spotlight as a bellwether for the green economy.
