Chile’s Codelco is offering its European customers copper at a record-high premium of US$350 ($499.75) a tonne for next year, up more than 7% from US$325 this year, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Codelco, the world’s biggest copper miner by production, declined to comment.
Premiums set by Codelco for physical delivery of refined copper are paid on top of London Metal Exchange prices and are often referenced as a benchmark in global supply contracts for the metal used in electric vehicles, grid infrastructure, and construction.
The record premium — offered as the global metals industry gathers in London for LME Week — points to an emerging trend of higher copper premiums for next year due to expectations of shortages in Europe.
Aurubis (DE:NDA), Europe’s biggest copper smelter, last week hiked its 2027 premium by around 10% to US$347 a tonne, also a record for the German company.
Shortages in the world outside the United States are due to expectations of US tariffs on copper imports.
Traders have been shipping copper to the US since President Donald Trump ordered a study on the potential for tariffs in February last year.
The prospect pushed Comex prices to a record high of US$6.83 a pound, or US$15,057 a tonne, on 22 September. Comex-approved warehouses in the US hold around 70% of the world’s visible copper stocks.
Mine disruptions to copper supply, including Codelco’s El Teniente deposit, which was hit by a deadly landslide this month, have also helped keep copper prices elevated. The metal hit a record high of US$14,875 a tonne on the LME last month. It was last around US$14,380 a tonne.
Codelco offers separate premiums for the US and Asian markets, including top metals consumer China.
(Reporting by Pratima Desai, Fabian Cambero and Tom Daly. Editing by Mark Potter)
Image: Codelco
