Tariff policies dominate the market, traders plan to deliver copper on a large scale at the New York Mercantile Exchange

Affected by another round of supply chain turmoil triggered by U.S. President Trump's tariff policy, traders plan to conduct large-scale deliveries of the COMEX copper futures main contract, highlighting the waves stirred up in the copper market by tariff threats.

According to data from the CME Group, this month, traders in New York's Comex plan to deliver 31,712.5 short tons (28,800 tons) of copper under the September contract, marking the largest single-day delivery since April of this year and one of the largest in the past decade.

These deliveries indicate that last month, after Trump unexpectedly announced the exemption of refined copper from import tariffs, the trading logic for copper traders has changed once again. For nearly a year prior, tariff news frequently stirred the market.

Many had originally expected Trump to impose tariffs on refined copper, thereby ending the previous frenzy of "rushing copper to the U.S." Trump's final decision significantly reduced the price incentives for shipping to the U.S., but this has not completely eliminated the high levels of copper imports. Meanwhile, as refined copper can be imported on demand, the rationale for traders to hold domestic U.S. inventory has diminished.

Currently, Comex inventory has risen to its highest level in twenty years. This year, as traders rushed to import copper in anticipation of the tariff announcement, copper inventories have increased significantly. Comex copper prices once soared above London benchmark prices, providing traders with substantial arbitrage opportunities and disrupting the traditional supply and demand pattern of the global copper industry.

Media analysis points out that these deliveries reflect how Trump's decision to exclude refined copper from import tariffs has changed the calculation logic for copper traders. This decision has weakened, but not completely eliminated, the price incentives for shipping copper to the U.S. Comex copper prices still maintain a slight premium over London copper prices, continuously providing traders with the motivation to transport physical copper to Comex warehouses