Copper heads for worst week since March as AI sell-off hits industrial metals

Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell 0.5% to $13,775 a metric ton in official trading on Friday, 6 November, and was heading for a 2.6% weekly decline — its largest since the week ended 20 March, Reuters reported.

The metal, used in electrification and in AI infrastructure including data centres, earlier slipped as much as 1.5% to $13,636, its lowest since 30 July, before finding support near its 200-day moving average.

Tight supplies limited the fall

Copper stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses dropped more than 24% this week to 33,848 tons — the lowest in almost three years and less than a day’s worth of Chinese consumption, Reuters said. The Yangshan premium, a gauge of Chinese appetite for imported copper, rose to a record $217.50 a ton. The cash LME contract traded at a $181-a-ton premium over the three-month forward, a sign of near-term tightness outside the United States.

The long-standing premium of US Comex copper over LME prices briefly flipped to a discount overnight before recovering. Deutsche Bank metals research head Daniel Ghali said markets were digesting a Democratic “blue wave” and a perceived lower chance of US import tariffs on refined copper — tariffs he said remain under President Donald Trump’s authority.

“In our view, copper bears need a recessionary spiral from here, whereas copper bulls only need the status-quo trend to persist,” Ghali wrote.

Other metals

Aluminium fell 0.5% to $3,049 a ton, zinc lost 1.6% to $3,734, lead slipped 0.5% to $1,885 and nickel eased 0.2% to $16,285. Tin was the only gainer, up 1.7% to $46,250.