Copper is on track for its largest annual price rise in more than a decade as US tariffs, supply disruptions and fears of a global shortage fuelled a frantic rally at the end of the year.
The red metal rallied to a record of more than $12,000 a tonne in December and has risen by more than a third in 2025 — the biggest yearly jump since 2009, when copper prices soared by more than 140 per cent as the world emerged from the financial crisis.
Analysts expect demand for the industrial metal to outstrip mined supply by the 2030s and for prices to remain elevated next year. The need for copper is growing as a result of the shift from fossil fuels to renewables such as wind and solar and the electrification of vehicles, and the boom in the construction of data centres that power artificial intelligence. But ageing copper mines are becoming less productive, and bringing new ones online is hugely expensive and takes years.